[CONTENTID1]

twenty-five: potential [/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]

[Juyeon realized she had finally done something right.] [/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]

"Um, S-Sumi?" the boy repeated, scratching his shaggy dark hair in confusement. "Uh, I don't really know, I mean …"

Juyeon, still overcome with curiosity, had decided to ask her table partners at lunch about Sumi's relationship with Exo. Juyeon didn't even know why she cared so much; but for some reason she just wanted to know. Sumi always gave her such a weird (not necessarily bad, but weird) feeling, and Juyeon wanted to know why. Or maybe she just wanted to know why Sumi kept her distance.

"Do you know about them or not?" Juyeon asked persistently. "It's a very easy question to answer."

The boy lapsed into a nervous silence, pulling at his fingers until small cracks were audible from his knuckles, and the curly-haired girl spoke up. "M-Minjun can't really talk about it. W-we're not supposed to."

Juyeon looked at the boy, Minjun, then back at the girl. "What's your name?"

The girl stared at the tabletop and finally said, "Seoyeon."

"Right, okay. Minjun, Seoyeon―why aren't you allowed to talk about it? Who said you weren't allowed?"

"That kind of defeats the purpose of not being allowed to talk about it if we tell you why," Minjun pointed out, and the girl frowned at him. "Quiet, Minjun!" She turned back to Juyeon, chewing on her bottom lip. "D-Donovan ordered us to keep quiet about it a long time ago. Any new PCs who arrive quickly learn to keep their mouths shut too."

"Sounds scandalous." Juyeon wondered what it could be. Gossip was surprisingly fun; she couldn't believe she was so disinterested in it before. Well, then again, she didn't have so much to deal with back then.

"It's really not," Seoyeon said, with a slight, sassy roll of her eyes that surprised Juyeon. "They always made a big deal over Sumi, even when we were kids."

"You knew her when you were a kid?" Juyeon asked, amazement in her voice. "So you knew Exo too?"

Seoyeon clammed up instantly. Her cheeks were blazing red now. "Well, I mean, I knew them, but it wasn't like we were all friends or―or anything." She pulled at the pins in her hair, a nervous act Juyeon could understand; she always pulled at her braid when she was anxious. "Donovan has a soft spot for Sumi and the Exo, so they always get special treatment. N-not that I'm complaining," she added hastily.

Juyeon turned to Minjun. "And you?"

The boy frantically shook his head like a dog getting rid of water. A very shaggy dog. "I came to the Academia two years ago. Not like Seoyeon. She's been here for years."

Juyeon frowned. When Sumi said she knew the Exo since they were kids, she assumed she meant as childhood friends, playmates. The children of family friends visiting each other's homes. Now Juyeon had a feeling some of the PCs had been living in the Academia much longer than the normal three years of high school.

Seoyeon startled Juyeon out of her thoughts when she said, "Y-you're sitting closer to us today."

Juyeon looked at her seat. She was still on the very edge of the bench. "Am I?"

Minjun looked embarrassed. "Seoyeon," he hissed, but Seoyeon's mouth kept moving.

"Before, you used to sit approximately eight centimetres from the edge of the bench," she babbled. "Today, you've moved roughly two point seven centimetres towards us. It may just be you did so without knowledge of it; but you've hardly deviated from your spot for the past month, so it seems unlikely. There's also a chance you did it so you can hear us better when we answer your questions, but there's a fifty-nine percent chance you just feel a bit more comfortable sitting with us." Seoyeon blinked, then looked mortified. "Oh, I―I'm sorry, I didn't mean―"

"What was that?" Juyeon said in amazement. "Do you secretly put up a ruler and calculator on me or something?"

Seoyeon shook her head, looking like she wanted to crawl in a hole forever. "No, I―it's my gift. I, I'm really good with numbers." She gave a self-conscious laugh. "Some power, huh?"

"Are you kidding?" Juyeon said breathlessly. "That is incredible! God, now that is one PC power I would die to have!"

Juyeon didn't know if that was really a compliment or not, but Seoyeon's face turned an even darker shade of red and she ducked her head down to hide an embarrassed smile. Juyeon figured no one ever complimented a gift like that. They wanted something that enhanced fighting strength, not mental power.

But still … a gift like that? Juyeon's mind raced with possibilities. She wouldn't have to study so hard with a mind already tuned in to numbers. And not to mention intelligence was powerful in its own right. Wars were only ever won with smart minds, after all. Nobody could come out successfully without proper brains and strategy.

"So, your gift," Juyeon s