“Are you crazy?”

Yim Younghee watches as her younger brother climbs over the wooden fence marked with the large, daunting words: “DO NOT CROSS.”

“Yim Youngjun!” she yells. “Get back over here!”

“Relax, it’ll be quick—I swear!” Youngjun replies, jumping over to the other side. With a gasp, Younghee runs over to the fence, pressing her face close to the dark, wooden planks to see her brother’s figure through the slits between each plank.

“Are you daft?” she scolds him. “The sovereign will surely have your head if they catch you roaming around there! I’m serious, Youngjun!”

“Look, I already found the missing piece,” Youngjun says, rolling his eyes, and Younghee watches as he waves a piece of his handmade rocket around in the air.

“Oh, when are you going to throw that silly thing away?”

“It’s not silly. One day, I’ll make a huge version of this, and I’ll fly to the moon. And you’re not coming with.”

“To the moon! That’s ridiculous, how can anyone fly to the moon? And what are you going to do if there’s no oxygen?”

“I’m still thinking about that part, okay?” Youngjun pouts, walking back to the fence. “Maybe if umma bought me the third edition of ‘Fundamentals of Science,’ then I would be able to figure it out.”

“Wait until your birthday,” Younghee sighs. “You know how expensive those books are.”

“It’s only the fifth month into the year,” he retorts. “Mine lands on the eighth.”

“Be patient—and get over here already.”

“Wait, there’s something cool-looking over there,” Youngjun says, running off again, causing Younghee to let out a huge groan. Moments later, Youngjun runs back, eyes wide like he had just seen a ghost.

“N-Noona,” he stammers.

“What happened?”

“I—There’s a corpse.”

“A what?”

“A dead body.”

“Don’t joke around, Youngjun.”

“I’m not kidding, I swear,” he denies, throwing the rocket piece over the fence before frantically climbing over. “Let’s leave.”

She eyes him warily. Perhaps he is telling the truth, for his scared expression certainly supports his words.

“Crazy…” she mumbles, not wanting to believe Youngjun.

-

“You’re acting like you’ve seen something you shouldn’t have,” Younghee sighs. “A corpse isn’t a big deal; someone died in an accident and no one cared enough to move their body. That’s all there is to it.”

“I didn’t tell you something,” Youngjun confesses in a low whisper, staring at the ceiling as the two of them lie in their beds.

“…What is it?”

“There was a weird-looking plant thing right next to the corpse—unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. And it wasn’t in any of the science books I’ve read.”

“Maybe it’s in the third edition,” Younghee jokes. Youngjun shifts and rolls over on his side to stare at Younghee.

“Noona,” he utters, serious as ever. “There was something terribly off about that corpse.”

“Oh, just let it go.”

“I didn’t t