When the high eventually wore off, Lana awoke and found herself lying beside Kyungsoo on the diner table. Before dozing off, the two had spent quite a comfortable pillow-talk session feeding each other Cheerios, and the cereal box now lay empty on the bench beside them along with the used “protection” Kyungsoo had pulled out of his pocket at the last second.

Several hours must have passed since then, because Lana was still hungry. She hopped off the table and slipped back into her school uniform as a half-asleep Kyungsoo, eyes still shut, groaned and swatted at the empty air for the missing body of the girl he had been cuddling seconds before. Lana fought back a smirk as she watched him conk back out on the tabletop fast asleep. She turned to the cabinet above the stove and opened it up. The shelves were lined with boxes upon boxes of dry foods: uncooked noodles, granola bars, even an unopened package of Count Chocula with an expiration date of September 1983.

But what Lana really craved was peanut butter. She was certain Kyungsoo had some, too, because she remembered seeing a jar in the cart at the grocery store the night before. She shifted a box to the left, rummaging the cabinet for the snack, when she suddenly froze.

Right behind the cereal boxes were two little switches coated in cobwebs. Text engraved on the left lever read “Random Time” at the top and “Set Time” at the bottom. On the right switch, the words read instead “Random Place” and “Set Place” respectively. Both levers pointed upward.

Random time... Random place...

Suddenly it all made sense. The bus never ended up in the right time period because it was set to travel at random.

Lana stared at the contraption for all of five seconds before shrieking at the top of her lungs, “DO KYUNGSOO!” She grabbed the empty Cheerios box from the floor and whacked him in the knees with it. The unsuspecting teen flew upright, suddenly wide awake. His head swiveled back and forth across the bus as if looking for a fire or some other type of emergency.

“What? What’s going on?” he spat out as he proceeded to jump off the table and begin stuffing his legs into a pair of jeans.

“You’ve been playing games with me!” she accused, crossing her arms huffily.

Kyungsoo froze in place and gaped at her in wide-eyed confusion. “Playing games? What do you mean?”

“I found the switches in the cabinet,” she informed him with a convicting glower. “You really weren’t planning on taking me home at all, were you?”

He tilted his head at her, furrowing his brows in bafflement. “What switches? What are you talking about?”

“You know what I’m talking about,” she huffed. Was he really trying to play dumb? Sure enough, she had known all along that he really was a kidnapper. And to think, she was really starting to let him grow on her.

She stepped aside, motioning the boy to take her place at the cabinet. He shot her a final puzzled glance before hurrying up, setting his hands on his hips as he leaned forward to peek inside. No sooner had he stuffed his face into the cabinet than he gasped loudly, pulling it right back out.

“¡Ay, caramba!” Kyungsoo exclaimed, and Lana rolled her eyes. He quickly began switching the levers downward back to their proper settings. “So that’s where my dad put that setting! I’ve been looking for these switches for ages. Honestly, I was starting to think I’d never find them and I’d be traveling through time at random for the rest of my life.”

She slowly narrowed her eyes in disbelief. “Exactly what are you trying to tell me right now? That we could have been stuck teleporting through time forever, and I could have never made it home, and you weren’t even going to clue me in?”

Upon noticing the absolutely bloodthirsty look on Lana’s face, he began nervously poking his fingers together. “Well, uh, you see...” he muttered. “I didn’t really... I ‘unno...”

“And what do you mean ‘my dad’?” she continued. “You told me you built the time machine. Were you lying to me?”

Kyungsoo sighed, hanging his head in defeat. “I’m sorry, Lana,” he admitted sheepishly, staring down at the ground to avoid her murderous gaze. “I just wanted you to think I was cool. I thought if you realized I didn’t know what I was doing, you’d hate me more. And then you said we were friends, and I didn’t want you to hate me even more...”

Lana was shocked to say the least—shocked virtually to the point of stupefaction. She couldn’t do anything but gape at the boy, frowning as he bowed in apology until his black hair nearly swept the ground. What really shocked her though wasn’t the newfound realization that the bus wasn’t actually malfunctioning, the fact that she could have been home a week ago, or Kyungsoo’s admittance that he wasn’t the true builder of the time machine.

What really shocked her was that she didn’t really even feel angry anymore. Surprised and astonished, yes. But angry? Not really. Actually, she felt sorry for the boy and, to an extent, even flattered. Was her friendship really that special to him that he would try so hard to hold onto it, even when she hadn’t exactly been nice to him all this time?

Before she could recover from her state of stupor or figure out how to accept his apology, Kyungsoo straightened himself up. Wearing a dejected frown, he turned to the front of the bus and dragged his feet to the driver’s seat.

“I’ll take you home now,” he mumbled, punching numbers onto the computer console on the dashboard. “Sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused.”

Without another moment’s warning, the bus lifted off. The littered farmland faded in an instant as the sound of thunder cracked the air and the scene outside the windows was replaced with fantastical glitters and swirls of color. Lana held her breath as the silver smoke and clouds slowly settled, shifting shape into high-rising metallic buildings. From one quick glance, she immediately recognized the skyline as belonging to the one and only Seoul.

The bus door swiveled open, and Kyungsoo slowly rose from his seat. He bowed in apology again before motioning to the door.

“You can go now,” he muttered. “I’m sorry again.”

Lana’s heartbeat climbed to the sky as she glanced to the open door. 2033 was waiting outside. She was finally home.

Author's Note
I’m sorry for the long wait for this chapter! School is totally kicking my this semester. :( Thanks for being patient. Please leave lots of comments! It helps me stay motivated to write, especially now that I’m so drained from other endeavors!