University of Wonderland

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"But why keep me over Minho?" I looked back and forth between Sulli and Sehun.

Sulli stood up from her seat and dusted off her pants. "He's not seeing straight."

"He's too focused on revenge," Sehun translated, also standing up. "Not just on you, on everything that's hurt him. He's sabotaging us with his blackmail and surveillance stuff instead of concentrating on what's important."

"Important. Ah, yes, doing drugs at school is vital to saving the planet," I joked.

"Those aren't magic mushrooms. They're shiitakes. He's addicted. I'd say it's weird but . . . it's Minho."

I chuckled as I followed them to the door. "How do you know you can trust me?" I paused. "Wait. That came out wrong. I mean -"

"Suzy, I'm not blind." Sulli held the door for me. "I've known about your sister for a while."

"I wish you'd told me," Sehun shook his head in a ressuring, I'm-not-mad-at-you gesture.

"There's a lot of things Suzy could've told us." Sulli closed the door behind her. "Like what she knew."

I stopped walking as they continue to walk forward. When they realized I wasn't following them, they both turned back at me. "I want to make one thing clear. I won't spy on my sister," I said. "Just like I won't feed information to her."

"Worth a shot." Sulli began walking down the hallway. Sehun held out his hand for me to take. A smile bloomed on my face as I wrapped my fingers in his.

"Where are we going?" I questioned.

"I'm going home," Sulli said over her shoulder. "I don't want to be around for whatever Sehun has planned."

Redness spread over his cheeks. "Well, I want to have that . . . talk soon. But I really do have to get to work."

I knew he meant we would do anything but talk, and that scared me as much as it excited me. Now new questions pounded in my head. Sehun was clearly keeping something from me based on the wet hair (showering at school? Why?), not to mention the mission of the group. Id he was going to let me into his . . . well, let's say heart, jusr=t like he let me into the group, I had to trust him. And he had to trust me. They'd chosen me over Minho, and that meant I should be silent to the information. All the information.

"Oh, right. I forgot you took an extra shift." Sulli turned to me. "Suzy, if you want I can help you get your garden in shape."

"You don't want to face Minho!" Sehun teased.

"I'm not scared of him, but that doesn't mean I have to put myself in his war path."

Sehun dropped us off at my house. Digging her fingers underneath the soil, Sulli unrooted almost everything I'd worked so hard to position. She replanted them in a crazy pattern. In some spots, flowers crowded while she left others to sparse, a forest of animals could make their nests in the empty space. She allowed my thricing white rosebush to remain in place, towering over the other flowers. Sulli told me one of the reasons my plants weren't growing was because I'd mixed friends and enemies together, planting my asparagus too close to the onions in my vegetable garden. She also suggested I but oyster shells and soak them in the plant water, because it removed acidity.

After she finished, I went inside nad brought out my parents' photo album, the one she'd been eager to see when I first tried to join in the group.

"Oh, cool, I almost forgot about this."

I held it out of arm's reach. "Only if you tell me what your agenda is."

"You have to talk to Sehun."

"He told me the same thing about you a while ago."

"That was just an excuse for him. It's not my place to tell." One thing about Sulli I both admired nad espised: she fiercely kept everyone else's secrets, including mine.

"He's going to play the game of monkey-in-the-middle." I handed over the album, only because I wanted to watch what she focused on. It might give me some clue.

She flipped through the pages, barely stopping at any of the pictures. When she came to last page, she pursed her lips. "This wasn't as helpful as I hoped."

"What were you looking for?"

"Doesn't matter. It wasn't here."

I took the book back. "It matters to me."

"Fine, I was looking for photos of people I don't know, so I could try to find out who they were. I recognize everyone here."

"Why?"

"Because I'm trying to identify everyone who might have been involved in this stuff." She pushed herself off the ground and wiped off her hands. "To warn them." A question formed on my lips, but before I could get out, she said, "Those are the only answers I can give you."

"If I'm going to help you do illegal things, I need to know why."

"I know. I think it's time. And if I think it's time, it must be late."

=^_^= . . . =^_^=

A short update for today. The next update is going to be longer, I think. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.