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“Who knows?” Miyoung surveyed the area for this mysterious they.

“Leave.” Yena stepped away, her form becoming transparent, bleeding into the maehwa tree behind her. “Don’t come back.”

“Eomma, wait.” Miyoung stepped forward, but it felt like she was walking through molasses and she couldn’t reach her mother in time. “Don’t leave. Tell me what you mean. Who knows?”

Yena didn’t reply. Her skin became pale, then gray, as her form joined the tree. And then she wasn’t there at all.

“Eomma!” Miyoung called, trying to will her mother back.

Her voice echoed into the forest. A place that was a dream but wasn’t at the same time. She felt cold down to her bones, like she was somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be. Like it was rejecting her, and if she didn’t leave, she had no idea what would become of her.

8

SOMIN HATED WAITING,but it’s all they could do once they’d rushed Miyoung to the hospital. The doctors had let Jihoon sit with her, mostly because he stubbornly refused to budge. But Somin and Junu had been relegated to the large waiting area where dozens of chairs sat in rows facing a large television tuned to a news channel.

She pretended to watch the screen but absorbed nothing that the news anchors were discussing.

The anxious monotony of waiting was broken as Changwan hurried in, ran to the desk. Probably babbled some nonsensical question.

He was directed to the waiting area and rushed over. “Somin-ah, Hyeong, what happened?”

“They’re still waiting for some blood work to come back,” Somin said. She could practically feel the waves of nervous energy emanating off Changwan. He didn’t deal with crisis well.

“Changwan-ah, why don’t you sit and wait with us?” Junu said. His voice was soft and calm. One might even call it comforting, if one weren’t Somin.

“I’d rather do something,” Changwan said. “Do you want coffee?”

“No,” Somin said at the same time Junu said, “Sure.”

Junu gave her a hard look that seemed to imply she was being difficult. She wanted to stubbornly hold her ground, but as Changwan looked nervously between them, she realized it wasn’t about the coffee to her friend. It was about being able to do something instead of sitting and waiting. The very thing she had been lamenting two minutes earlier.

“Sure,” Somin said. “I could use something to drink.”

“On it.” Changwan took off in search of the caffeine he obviously did not need.

“Look, I know you’re worried—” Junu started to say.

“Then you should leave me alone, because you’re not going to help with my nerves,” Somin said, turning to find another section to sit in.

“I get it that you don’t like me, but I’m worried about Miyoung, too. I have a right to be here.”

“Oh yeah?” Somin asked, spinning on him. “You have a right to be around a person whose life you upended with your secrets and lies not four months ago?”

“That’s not fair. I thought I was helping her. There were more players in that game than I’d anticipated,” Junu said, running his hands through his hair. It stood on end, and for the first time, Somin realized he didn’t look perfectly done up. His shirt was untucked, his hair now mussed, and there was a line of worry that sat between his brows.

Still, Somin refused to soften toward him. “I find it hard to believe a guy who claims to be able to find out anything had no idea that Miyoung’s father was back and what he intended. You could have warned her. You could have protected them both.”

“Just because I can find things out doesn’t mean I go lookingfor information that is none of my business. I just do what I get paid to do.”

Somin shook her head. “Whatever. Do what you want, just don’t bother me.”

“What exactly have I done to you to make you hate me so much?” Junu asked, throwing his hands in the air.

Somin let out a derisive laugh. “Didn’t I just tell you?”

“No, you were like this to me way before anything really happened with Miyoung. You’ve had it out for me since the moment you laid eyes on me.” Junu took a step closer, his eyes focused, like he was piecing parts of her together.

“I just don’t like people like you.”