"Please stop saying that," Sojin said as soon as we reached Miss Arquette's half glass, half hardwood house.

"What?"

She dropped my hand. "That you love me."

But I was too swift to let her relinquish my hold of her. I held on tighter. "You don't believe me?"

"It's not that," she frowned.

"So you believe me?"

"I didn't say that either."

"What is it then?"

"Well.." She pouted, appearing to war with herself before sighing. "Nothing."

I knew it. "You're so frustrating, you know that?" I flattened one palm to my forehead and pressed the other against Sojin's hand.

And then she reached out so that both my hands were caged between hers. Her eyes bore fiercely on mine. "Luhan, I wanna tell you something but don't get mad, okay?"

My pulse was racing again. "I think I'll decide that after you tell me."

"Please? I don't like it when you're mad at me."

"I never get mad at you, I get annoyed with your recklessness."

"You haven't exactly set the perimeters of what's reckless and what's not."

How cleverly Sojin. "Fair enough," I agreed. "Tell me."

"Promise me first."

With her touch so delicate, it took an outrageous amount of willpower to not concede. I had to focus somewhere over her head. "No."

"Okay, whatever," she rolled her eyes, a hint of amusement passing through those droopy pools. "I won't be expelled nor suspended nor detained, but all the marks I'd manage to achieve within the investigatory period won't be credited. I will only ever be in class so I won't flunk due to absences."

My hands dropped from her hold at that. Along with my jaw.

"Originally," Sojin resumed, undeterred by my reaction, "I was subject for immediate expulsion, but the school's IT people already did an initial investigation - at the Head Principal's bidding, of course - and they'd discovered that I really did intercept their communication system only once, which was an hour after the EUM was sent. And with regard to your locker, they didn't fuss so much about it anymore because I told them it was.." She smiled ruefully, taking my hands into hers yet again. "I'm so sorry, Luhan, but I told them that it was to your consent."

"It doesn't matter," I said hastily.

"So you're not mad?"

"At you? Hardly. At myself? You couldn't even start to imagine." I released her and looked away. "Why, Sojin?" I hissed, not meeting her eyes. "Why would you do that? For me?"

"I already told you, I don't do it because it's you."

"Regardless!" I threw my hands up in exasperation. "Why would you place yourself on the line? Why not just let things happen? It won't be so hard, I imagine. Right?"

"Ironically," she bounced twice on the balls of her feet, "it's more tormenting if I don't do anything. I don't get it myself, Luhan, but.. I think I'm simply doing what I'm supposed to do, you know what I mean?"

"No, I don't, Sojin."

"Of course you do. It's how you've properly stood up as a decent Prefect after all, remember?"

"What're you -"

"In your Freshmen year? When you saw to it that those Seniors got reprimanded accordingly?"

"How could you possibly know that when you only transferred on the second quarter of Sophomore year?"

Sojin smirked, her beauty escalating a few degrees higher; it had nearly dissipated my agitation. "You keep forgetting that we have an awful lot of mutual friends, don't you?"

"I.." Right. How foolish.

"And speaking of, you should have thanked Jongdae earlier."

"Earlier.. you heard us?"

"Who wouldn't? I'm guessing you were a few classrooms apart when you conversed, which is amusing, I admit. And Jongdae, well, you should've noticed by now that his voice is always on maximum volume." She leaned her spine against the wooden gate. "Anyway, he took heed of my request and procured the receipt I was talking about. And yes, it really was Jimin who had bought him the liquor that knocked him cold."

"Wait, wait. I'm not really following, Sojin. What receipt? How.. I mean.."

"That bar on the last block? The only bar in the vicinity? Well, Jimin's still a minor so unfortunately for her, she had to surrender her identity and was issued a receipt. I imagine she immediately disposed of her copy, but then there's always the store's own copy - the one Jongdae got - and that's how he had her nailed. She's been summoned by the Head Principal this afternoon but I don't know what's gonna happen next. I just really hope she's finally going to sing. And then we'll know at last.. who's behind all these."

Behind all these? Did I hear that right? So there's still a mastermind? Surely, I didn't strike as that notorious for somebody to go to such lengths?

"Did you know that Jimin had intended for you to get locked up in last year's Festival Days because whoever commanded her to thought you were aiming for an Arts College?"

I scoffed. "That would have been very ambitious of her, honestly."

"Not really,