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“It’s not you. My mother and I never stay in one place long. I always make a mistake eventually. People are already suspicious of me now that Hana’s told them what happened at my last school.”

“What if you didn’t leave this time?”

“We will,” she insisted.

“Okay, but let’s just imagine, what if you didn’t?”

She didn’t want to play this game that already made her heart ache, but she gave in because that was his power. He made her want to hope. “If I didn’t leave, then maybe we could go on a date?”

“Yeah?” He smiled and that damned dimple folded in his cheek. She wanted to kiss it, place her lips right on top of it. And because of it, she pinched her lips tight, as if she thought they’d go rogue.

“What kind of date?” Jihoon asked.

“I don’t know,” she mused, using the guise of thinking to settle her speeding heart. “Namsan?”

Jihoon let out a laugh, then stopped when he saw her frown. “Namsan Tower? That’s kind of a cliché, don’t you think?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never been,” Miyoung bit out, suddenly embarrassed. She started to turn away.

“Okay, okay,” Jihoon said, grabbing her shoulders so she faced him. “We’ll go to Namsan and I’ll buy you one of those giant hot dogs with the fried potato around it.”

“And an ice cream,” she said. And then she realized that shewas really starting to hope that they could go on this ridiculous, cliché date. “The bell is going to ring.”

“Okay, but don’t forget that you owe me a date now,” Jihoon said, letting her shoulders go. And her skin felt suddenly cold where his palms had been.

“Sure, when we can be two regular human kids, we’ll go on this date.”

“Good,” Jihoon said with a smile.

The bell rang and Miyoung stood quickly, rushing to make it back inside. Her chest was hurting, like something was pressing against her ribs. Or as if her heart was swelling because it was suddenly so full. A feeling she was so unused to, it hurt.

25

MIYOUNG STARTED BRINGINGa change of clothes every day. As predicted, the favored attack of the kids was food. Miyoung could make a whole Chuseok meal with the ingredients she’d been plastered with.

She was lucky Yena was still away. It gave her privacy to stew in her humiliation.

Miyoung walked toward class after gym. It had been a particularly harrowing hour of avoiding flying objects that “accidentally” slipped out of kids’ hands. Which wouldn’t have been such a problem if her balance wasn’t constantly thrown off by the ghosts that plagued her. It was almost like they’d coordinated with her human bullies to bombard her all at once.

And she couldn’t forget Nara’s words. The ghosts weren’t new. They’d been following her like flags of shame ever since she stole their lives to prolong her own. They were her punishment.

The late bell rang, letting her know that the extra-long shower she’d taken to avoid the other kids after gym class had been a mistake.

She was hurrying down the hall when an arm shot out, blocking her path. Miyoung glanced up at Jung Jaegil. She could make out a fading bruise over his right eye and remembered hisanxious face as he searched the dark, dirty road for his father. Guilt pricked along her skin.

“Get out of my way,” she said, adding steel to her voice. “I’m late.”

“We’re all late.” Jaegil gestured to himself and Seho, who stood behind him.

“I don’t have time for this.” Miyoung tried to walk around Jaegil, but his friend blocked her path.

“I heard you’ve got a record,” Jaegil said with a laugh. “I never thought there’d be a kid worse than me in this school.”

Miyoung tried to push past him again, but he slammed her back so hard her shoulders hit the wall with athud.

It’s what you deserve after what you did to his father,a ghostly voice whispered. And she didn’t know if it was one of her phantoms or her own thoughts.

“Something about you bothers me,” Jaegil drawled out. He pushed forward. She smelled orange juice and shrimp chips on his breath. “How did you break that store window?”