I reread Seolhyun's note again and again, but it's still not making sense. Did they . . . ? I mean, are we . . . ?

"They left us," Jungkook finally says.

"All of them?"

"All of them."

"I don't understand," I say. "Where did they go?"

He carefully arranges sticks in the shape of a teepee around the pile of tinder. "Back to the glamping compound."

"They told you that?"

"Seolhyun and Bogum had a fight after you went to your tent last night." Jungkook keeps his eyes glued to his task, but his body posture looks . . . uncomfortable. "Long story short, he said this trip was too much drama for him. Seolhyun agreed. They decided to go back home."

Is this a joke? It must be. Right?

Carefully, he props up larger branches over the sticks. "Seolhyun was going to leave last night, which was crazy. Minjun and I had to convince her to stay until there was light to hike, and that we'd go back together. Earlier this morning, I thought I heard a noise, but it wasn't loud, so I fell back asleep. By the time I'd woken up again and gotten dressed, they were gone."

He's serious. This isn't a joke.

I feel dizzy, so I sit on a boulder. "They left us? Hyejeong and Minjun too?"

"The last thing Minjun and I talked about last night before I turned in was trying to estimate how much it would cost to hire a car at the glamping compound to drive him and Hyejeong to his parents' vacation home." He brushes off his hands and digs a lighter out of his jeans pocket. "But I didn't think they'd just take off like that."

"Without us?"

"Bogum left me a note on the inside of that pack of cookies the bear ate. He basically said it was best we all parted ways to avoid further drama, and that he knew I could find my way back. Then I found the other note Seolhyun wrote outside your tent."

Find your own way home.

He gestures toward the riverbank. "They left Bogum's destroyed tent and a bunch of the supplies. Guess Seolhyun is officially over camping. Nice of her to just leave a huge mess behind for us to clean up."

"How long have they been gone? Can we catch up to them?" Why is he calmly building a fire?

"Suzy," he says, "if what I heard the first time I woke was the sound of them leaving, then they've been gone a couple of hours. We'll never catch up."

"You could have woken me up! We could have hustled!"

"I've only been awake for fifteen or twenty minutes. Don't you get it? It was too late an hour ago. By the time we hike to the parking lot . . ."

They'll have driven away already.

Okay. No need to panic. Just think. Maybe a new plan. What do we do now? It took us four hours to hike here from the parking lot. Another hour or so to drive back to the glamping compound, where we could catch a taxi or bus home. But we don't have a car. "How long a hike on foot is it from the parking lot back to the glamping compound?"

"There aren't shoulders on some of those mountain roads we drove. They aren't made for hiking. Christ, they're barely made for vehicles. You remember the drive here on that twisty main road."

We nearly hit a couple of other vehicles coming in the opposite direction when rounding switchbacks. It was sort of scary, and I definitely wouldn't want to be on that road in the rain or fog. Especially not on foot.

He shakes his head. "We'd better off taking an actual walking trail the other way around the mountains, but that could take . . . a lot longer.

"How much longer?"

"A day."

"All day?"

"And night. We'd have to camp along the way. There's no straight shot back to the compound from the parking lot out here."

Holy moly. Is he serious?

"This can't be happening," I tell him as I pace across the shelter, trying to figure out what to do next. I'm absolutely panicking now and not even bothering to hide it. "They abandoned us in the middle of nowhere? It was just an argument!"

"Seolhyun was pretty upset."

"Seolhyun? I'm the one who was humiliated."

"There was a lot of humiliation handed out last night in all directions. Everyone was upset. After you left, Seolhyun cried . . . a lot. And yelled a lot. I think her Olympic failure is affecting her more than she lets on."

I stare at him. "You're taking her side?"

He holds up his hands. "Not taking her side. I don't even like Seolhyun, and frankly, don't understand why you and Solbin were ever friends with her in the first place. You know how I've felt about her. That hasn't improved over the time, especially seeing how she's given Solbin the cold shoulder. I'm just saying that Seolhyun only pretends to be okay, but clearly she's not. As stupid as Bogum can be, even he knew it. Seolhyun's been reaching out for anything to make her feel better, including him. After things calmed down last night, he told me that they'd been talking since spring break, while he was getting back together with his old girlfriend. But I guess they started officially hooking up after the Olympic trials fiasco."

Aish. Wait. Since spring break . . . ? That party - where Bogum and I kissed - was during spring break.

"Did you know they were a couple before last night?" I ask. "Bogum and Seolhyun?"

He shakes his head. "They kept it from me, too. If you haven't noticed, Seolhyun has control issues. I guess when you and Bogum got together at that party -"

OH MY GOD. HE KNOWS.

"We weren't together," I say. "Not like that."

"It's none of my business."

How does Jungkook know about the kiss? Did Bogum tell him? Of course he did. I don't know why this upsets me so much, but I feel . . . exposed. "What exactly did Bogum tell you?"

He averts his eyes and doesn't respond.

"Oh, terrific," I mutter. "Could this get any worse? It was just one kiss! And believe me when I say I'm regretting it now."

"I didn't put a lot of stock in most things he told me," Jungkook says. "I think his mouth is bigger than his brain. And it's not as if I didn't know you were dating people over the last year. Life goes on, right? I dated someone too."

He did? I had no idea. I want to ask who it was - when it was. Are they still dating? He said "dated," right? Past tense?

"Not that one thing has to with the other," he says quickly. "Apples and oranges."

"Right," I say quietly. "Apples and oranges."

He shakes his head. "My point is, Seolhyun has issues. She's wounded and embarrassed, and she's not thinking straight. People do stupid things when they're acting on emotions."

"But I didn't do anything wrong!"

One brow lifts.

"Not wrong enough to get abandoned," I amend.

"Neither of us did. Well, I knew better than to agree to this trip, but I came anyway. So in a way, I was wrong. But, hey, all the agitators are gone, and I'm right where I want to be, so maybe it all worked out."

"Are you insane? This is complete disaster. What are we going to do? Maybe there's another way to get back that doesn't involve hiking all day. A bus that stops near the parking lot? The Koreas public transportation here has to connect to other nearby places. Surely, there's somewhere we can catch a Greyhound or something back to Daegu."

"Already thought of that. I have a map of the bus routes. The closest one is a grueling eight-hour hike back through the mountains. That's without breaks. And for someone who's not accustomed to hiking -"

He means me.

"- count on it taking ten, eleven hours. Up and down extraordinarily steep inclines. A hike for experienced hikers who want to challenge their bodies. It's labeled on the map as 'difficult.'"

Are you kidding me?

"I don't think they realized what they were doing by leaving us here," Jungkook continues. "Seolhyun's an , but she's not inhumane. Bogum just operates on the belief that everything will turn out fine, and he probably convinced Minjun and Hyejeong of this. At least, that's what I hope."

I hold Seolhyun's note in my hands, staring at it blankly while Jungkook gets the fire going, blowing the tinder and rearranging sticks. I think I'm in shock. Maybe I should blow into a paper bag.

"I'm going to miss the star party," I say, more to myself than to him. I know it's the last thing I should be worried about, but I'm having trouble focusing. My brain is moving too quickly, flashing through minor details as it searches for a solution to our predicament.

Jungkook looks up from the fire. "Is that the meet-up Seolhyun mentioned last night.

"Yeah," I say. "I was supposed to catch a bus to Apsan park in a couple of days. My astronomy club - Dr. Choi, you know?" Jungkook's moms occasionally used to drive me to the observatory for my meetings, so of course he knows. When he nods, I briefly explain the star party. "I was supposed to meet Solbin there."

And now I know why Seolhyun was so eager for me to go. I would be out of her hair, and she could enjoy Bogum's company in the open. Aish, what an idiot I've been.

"Suppose I can just text Solbin when we get to a place where there's service," I say absently. There's definitely no service out here. "Solbin needs to know not to expect me."

"Or you could just go to the star party like you originally planned," Jungkook says, something devilish sparkling behind his eyes.

A bird trills loudly on a distant branch. "It's too early to catch a bus," I explain. "No one will be at Apsan Park yet. I can't just sit around there twiddling my thumbs for a couple of days and wait for people to show up."

"I'm not talking about taking a bus. Apsan Park isn't all that far from here."

"It's not?"

He reaches into his jacket vest and pulls out his notebook. After a few moments of shuffling things around, he finds a map and unfolds it. "See," he says, laying the map down on a boulder and pointing. "This is where we are. And this is Apsan Park." He measures something and does a quick calculation, mumbling numbers under his breath as he counts them out. "A couple of days' hike through Queen's forest. Maybe three."

I snort. "Okay, that's insanely far."

"Not really. The trails would be a hell lot easier than the one leading to the nearest bus stop, and we wouldn't hike the entire time, you know. We'd take breaks. Camp at night."

"We?"

"You and me, yes," he says matter-of-factly. "I'd take you there."

"The two of us hiking to Apsan Park? Alone?"

"I wasn't planning on inviting the bear along, but if you think we need a chaperone . . ."

I chuckle nervously and look at the map. "Are you serious?"

"Completely."

"Why would you do this?"

He shrugs. " I don't want to go back home yet. If you do, then I can walk you back to the bust stop. Maybe you'd be able to catch a bus tomorrow. Maybe there would be service and you could call your mom to come get you. Maybe you can hitchhike."

That's a whole lot of maybes. Definitely do not like.

"On the other hand," he says, "if you want to go to Apsan Park, I can plan a less dangerous and much easier hike route into the national park."

"I don't know," I say, trying to think of a way to turn him down without sounding like a jerk. I mean, I can't do this. It's Jungkook. My enemy. My former enemy. And also my former best friend. I have no idea what are to each other now. We just started talking again, and my body is so stupid that it's already having dreams about him, which is what got me into trouble with him in the first place. I don't want to get my hopes up. I don't even want to have hopes!

"How were you planning on getting home once you got to Apsan Park?" he asks.

"Solbin," I say. "She's driving - following Dr. Choi and a few other people up there. The star party is for three nights, I think? So she's heading back when it's over. We were supposed to leave Friday morning to be back home by noon."

"Then I can catch a ride back to Daegu with you guys," he says, as if it's the most logical thing in the world. "Solbin's cool. I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

No, she wouldn't. She likes Jungkook. My brain flips back to the stuff she said about Bogum not being in Jungkook's league. God, she'd love to know what a total screwup Bogum was during this trip. She'd probably gloat and say she told me so.

Or she wouldn't, because she's too nice.

This is not what I planned. Then again, none of it is. Nothing has gone the way it was supposed to go. At all.

How did it all go so wrong?

"Look," he says. "The way I see it, if you go back home, Seolhyun wins. Because now that she's humiliated herself and lost control of her perfect vacation, she wants everyone to be miserable along with her. When school starts, she'll tell her tribe in the courtyard a version of the story that makes her look the best. Like it or not, you will be the antagonist of that story. Don't you think she'd just love it if she could tell everyone that you had to take a bunch of connecting rural buses to get back home? Or pay a gazillion dollars to hire a car - or worse, call your mom to come get you?"

"Your knack for making me feel like a failure is extraordinary."

"Or," he says, holding up a finger, "you could tell everyone that she ran home like a spoiled brat who didn't get her way while you had a great time hiking with the coolest guy in school."

I sniffled.

"And you can tell them that you went to a star party," he continues. "People will say, Ooh, what's that? And you'll be able to say, No big deal, I just hiked across a national park and met up with some of my fellow astronomers to view - Wait, what is it again?"

"The Perseid meteor shower."

"The Perseid meteor shower, which probably doesn't happen that often."

"Every year."

"Once every three hundred sixty-five days," Jungkook says in a mystical voice, wiping his hand through the air dramatically."

"Shut up," I say, smiling a little, despite the dire situation.

"Hey, I know you didn't lug that telescope up here for your health."

I glance in the direction of my tent. I haven't even had a chance to use it.

"Do what you love. Don't let Seolhyun stop you. Screw her. Screw Bogum, too, and his pretentious Kerouac worship. Kerouac drank himself to death. Neul Chang screwed anything that moved and was a total misogynist - like most of the BUMS, who were a bunch of immature . The he died of overdose. So yeah, neither one of them lived past their forties. National treasures, my ."

Yikes. Someone has strong feelings. "Didn't know you were so knowledgeable about literature," I say.

"I might surprise you yet, Bae Suzy."

He already has.

"I'm sorry about Bogum," he says in a gentler tone. "I really am. Especially if you liked him."

"Funny thing is, I'm not sure that I did. I mean, I thought I did, until . . ."

"You actually got to spend time with him?"

"Maybe."

"Me too. When he first started wanting to hang with me, I was like - I don't know. He's Park Bogum. Everyone loves him. But, damn, I couldn't spend an  hour alone with him without praying for a nuclear bomb to hit, because at least I wouldn't have to endure another second fo him quoting lines from different genres."

I think about Bogum telling me he'd like to learn how to photos of the stars, and now I wonder if he really meant it, or if he was just preemptively placating my feelings.

"But," he says, "despite everything that's happened between us, believe it or not, I just . . . really want you to be happy. And if Bogum is the guy to do that for you -"

"He's not," I say quickly.

"I'm glad," he says in a quiet voice. "I'm so, so glad to hear that."

I meet Jungkook's eyes with my own. His gaze is unwavering. Too serious. I'm having trouble holding it, so I look at fire instead.

A long silence stretches between us. Jungkook uses a stick to poke the new flames, adjusting his kindling. Last night, I watched him construct this same pyramid-shaped campfire, and eventually the surrounding sticks burns and collapse into the middle. It's amazing, actually. I had no idea there was an art to building a fire.

I had no idea about a lot of things.

"I dare you," he murmurs.

I stop rubbing the cold out of my thighs and glance up at him. "You what?"

"I dare you to go to Apsan Park. Let me take you there. I can do it. I know I can. You used to trust me."

"You used to give me reasons to."

"I never stopped. You just quit paying attention."

Are we fighting? I don't think so, but the energy between us feel fierce. As flammable as his artful pile of sticks.

What do I want to do? Maybe he's right, and returning home would be quiet sort of surrender. And really, didn't I come out here to get away from my family problems? Do I want to walk straight back into them, sitting behind the clinic's front desk, pretending to be okay while my father walks around in a cloud of lies?

But what's the alternative? Hiking in the boonies with my greatest enemy?

Former enemy?

God, I'm so confused.

Jungkook squats by the fire and assembles a portable grill. Like everything else we're carrying, it's lightweight and compact, all the pieces fitting inside a single metal tube. When he's finished clicking all the pieces together, it stands on four legs. He carefully settles it over the campfire, and then sets a pan of filtered stream water atop it. Flames the sides of the pan.

We both watch the water heating as if it's the most interesting thing in the world.

"Let's think this through logically, okay?" he says.

"Yes, please." Logical is good. Logical is safe. And I can tell by the look on his face that he's about to use logic against me, because he knows me oh-so-well. But I'm so stressed right now, I don't even care. I just need for things to line up in my brain.

He pushes dark hair out of his eyes and counts off a list of things on his fingers. "One, the group left us. Whether they thought through that clearly and realized what they were doing is inconsequential now. We're stranded. Two, we can hike all day on brutal trails and hope either a bus or nonmuderous person willing to pick up two hitchhiking teens can take us out of the mountains -"

"Omo."

"- or we can hike all day on easy trails and be halfway toward Apsan Park tomorrow. Three, you shouldn't cancel your plans with Solbin, because she's a way better friend than Seolhyun ever was. Four, you have a perfectly capable guide who can take you where you want to go, and enough time to get there. Five, what do you have to lose?"

"Plenty."

"Like what? You afraid Younghee will forget to feed Damon?"

Smart-.

"No," I say.

"Need to get back and press all your clothes before school starts? Or maybe you're expecting a big order of imported wash tape to be delivered and need to spend all day organizing it by color and pattern?"

"Oh, ha-ha. You're a regular Bill Murray."

"What, then?"

"I don't know, that my dad would kill us both if he knew you were part of Seolhyun's group. I can't imagine what he'd do if he knew I was contemplating spending several days alone with you."

"Good point. Alone." He whistles softly and opens a bear canister. "we'll have trouble keeping our hands to ourselves."

"I didn't mean that." I sound like Victorian schoolteacher, shocked by the very idea of impropriety - all Heavens to Besty! and How dare you, sir!

"No?" he says, feigning disappointment.

Is he flirting with me? That can't be right. I think I'm losing my mind. "N-no," I stutter, and then say more firmly, "No."

"Let me take you to Apsan Park. Give your dad a big middle finger. Suzy and Jungkook exploring the world. Like old times."

"Like old times," I mumble. "Hey, Jungkook?"

"Yeah?"

"We don't really have a choice, do we? I mean, hiking to the bust stop . . . it was never an option."

He gives me a tight smile, and then shakes his head. "It will be okay. I promise. I'll get you to Solbin in one piece. And if you change your mind, at the very least I can get you to ranger station inside the park by tomorrow."

The water is boiling. He carefully tilts the pan's contents into his steel carafe before settling a mesh plunger on top. Then he sets a timer on his phone.

"What's that?" I ask.

"French press."

"For coffee?"

"Yep."

"Real coffee? Not instant?"

"We're camping, Suzy, not living in a dystopian nightmare."

"I'll try to remember that when I'm digging cat holes."

He holds up two blue enamel coffee cups. "It could be worse. It could be winter."

Or I could be stuck in the wilderness, miles away from civilization, with the boy who crushed my heart in the palm of his hand.

Oh, wait.

I am.