University of Wonderland

Chapter Sixty

"Minho's sick." Sulli said. We stood in the empty hallway, watching the door swung shut as Shin-Hye and Minho disappeared on the other side of it. "Isn't he?"

"Um." I twisted my hands into knots, sliding my fingers through each other and back again.

"That jerk. If he doesn't die on his own first, I'll kill him for keeping this from me." Sulli smiled, clearly not serious.

"Sehun." I swallowed past the lump in my throat. "Your mom's cancer." My eyelids fluttered closed. The next words scraped against my tongue, heavy and painful. "I think it was caused by chemicals leaking into the soil from the power plant. The same thing that happened to Minho."

The color drained from Sehun's face. The truth hung heavy in the air between us. The cityship might not have killed my parents, but they'd been responsible for his mom's death.

I reached for his hand. "Are you okay?"

"I need a little time to process this, but I'm glad to know. Thanks." He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my forehead. He leaned back and squinted at me. "Are you okay? You look kind of . . . frazzled."

"I liked it better when you said I looked beautiful," I said.

He stroked my cheek with his thumb. "Always."

He pressed his lips against mine, gentle. I sank into his kiss agressively, taking it from grandmother-level to not-safe-for-TV.

Sulli groaned. "I'm not usually a rule-follower. But something tell me we shouldn't blatantly ignore Shin-Hye's demand. I'm not really in the mood to deal with a bounty hunter."

I broke away from Sehun, and the three of us walked toward the door.

"I can't believe this whole time Minho had been trying to save us," Sulli said.

"I feel bad for Hyuna," Sehun added. "Though I think she was pretty naive not to see he was using her."

Hyuna. Minho may have confessed, but Hyuna was the one person outside our circle who knew about my involvement. Who possibly had evidence. She'd promised to keep it a secret if I stayed away from her boyfriend. Now that he'd dumped her . . . would she stay quiet?

A knot formed in my stomach.

"Hyuna knows," I said. "She saw some of Minho's pictures of us."

We all exchanged glances, then burst into a race that gym teachers would be proud of.

By the time we got to lounge, she'd left her mark and disappeared. The walls dripped with red paint blotches, as if she'd taken a bucket and splashed it at the concrete. Still, it had hid the evidence - and vandalized the school even more.

"It's kind of beautiful, in a strange way." Sulli dipped her finger into a glob of paint. "My mom would love it."

"It looks like someone spilled tomato soup." Sehun rubbed his stomach. "Now I'm hungry."

"Beau-ootiful Soo-oop!" Sulli sang as she exited. "Soo-oop of the e-e-evening."

In the gym, the music sounded upbeat, while a singer crooned languidly. Some of the couples tried to grind while others pressed together in a romantic waltz.

Hyuna stood with her back to us by the drinks table, black hair flying about and tangling with her waving arms. Principal Yoon leaned on one hip in front of her, wearing an expression that could kill on contact. A crowd started to gather around them. A knot unwound in a stomach. I rushed toward them, and my friends followed.

"I'm not an environmental freak like Suzy," Hyuna shouted. "I was framed, I swear. Suzy set me up! I have proof she's been out to get me. You have to believe me."

My stomach settled into the floor. Shin-He might go out of her way to protect me, but I doubted Principal Yoon had allegiance to anything besides the flag.

Principal Yoon looked up and saw me. "Suzy." Her lips strethed into a thin line. "It can't be a coincidence that you're always involved in school vandalism. What is this, strike number three?"

Hyuna spun around and glared at me. "Not just school vandalism! She destroyed my house, too."

"I didn't fram Hyuna." It wasn't a lie, but it felt false on my lips. I blinked rapidly to keep from giving myself away with a nervous impression. It took me a moment to realize that didn't exactly send the message of nonchalance. Please let them think I have a bug in my eye.

"She's the one that flooded the school." Hyuna emphasized her words with a finger jabbed at my sternum. "And decoupaged the desks, Jiyeon and IU witnessed that latter."

Oh crap. If there was a time for an Oscar-worthy performance, this was it. "I didn't!" It came out all starngled, at a higher pitch than even Ailee

Prinicipal Yoon studied my face, and whatever she saw must have betrayed me because she said, "Suzy, I'm afraid I have no choice but to . . ." Her eyes circled to the ceiling as she considered a punishment. "Expel you."

"You can't expel her." Sulli's knees parted in a fighting stance, but her delivery of her words was calm and collected, like it was just another sentence and not a life sentence.

Principal Yoon tapped her fingers to her coral lips. "Actually, you're right. The school board thinks this is a democracy and I'm not sole leader."

My dress clung to me, fabric sticking to my sweaty skin. My armpits chose that moment to boasdcoast their scent.

"You know, Principal Yoon," Sulli directed her words at our fearless leader but pointed in her face at Hyuna "be what you seem to be."

Hyuna stomped on her feet. "What does that mean?"

Principal Yoon's head volley ball between the two girls.

"If you'd like it more simply." Sulli smirked. "Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise."

Several weeks of being Sulli's friend and I still couldn't speak her lanuage fluently.

"Translation." Sehun stepped between Sulli and Hyuna. "You don't have proof that Suzy did anything, whereas the pictures of you and the roses have already gone viral."

Hyuna looked like she wanted to murder Sehun and Sulli. "That's where you're wrong." She turned to Principal Yoon, skirt swishing as she turned. "I can get proof."

"Fine." Prinicpal Yoon swiped her hands in the air in a cease gesture. "We have a  mock-trial program at this school for a reason. We'll let them handle the he said/she said."

I swallowed hard. My peers would be the jury. There were only three people in the whole school who would have my back, and one of them was in jail while another didn't even go to this school anymore.

Explusion wouldn't exactly patch things up with Shin-Hye.

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

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!