Jiyong

Before school starts, I go behind the football bleachers to find Nick. Sure enough, he’s smokin’ a joint.

A look of panic crosses his face, until a second later he masks it with a smile. “Hey, man, wassup? I heard you got busted last week. That .” He holds out his joint. “Want a hit?”

I grab him by the collar and push him into a metal bar. “Why did you set me up?”

“You’re crazy! I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about,” he says. “Why would I set you up?”
 

I punch him in the face and he goes down. “Remember now?”

“Oh, ,” Nick cries out as I stand over him. I’ll kick the crap out of him until he gives me info. If he’s involved in any way with the WN (Warriors of the neighborhood) and Wes Devlin, that means Dara and the Parks could be in danger because I’m living with them. I can’t let that happen.

I grab the front of his shirt and hold him up. “Tell me why you put the drugs in my locker. And you better do it quick, because I haven’t been in a good mood since those cops put me in handcuffs.”

He holds his hands up in surrender. “I’m a pawn, Jiyong, just like you. My supplier, this guy Devlin, told me to plant the drugs. I don’t know why. He had a gun. And gave me the can and said to put it in your backpack or else. I don’t know why. I swear it wasn’t my idea.”

That leaves me to find out whose idea it was. The problem is, now I have to contact Devlin and watch my back every second of the day.

“Jiyong, it’s your turn to share.”

All eyes are on me after school at REACH. Choi expects me to spill my guts in front of everybody. Isn’t it bad enough I have to hear about their stupid problems, like how GeunSuk’s dad tells him he’s an idiot all the time and how SooHyun is a hero because his friends all drank beer over the weekend and he didn’t give in to the peer pressure?

What. A. Bunch. Of. Crap!
 

Mrs. Choi looks at me over the top of her glasses. “Jiyong?”

“Yeah?”
 

“Would you like to share something you did over the past week that had an impact on you?”
 

“Not really.”
 

JungAh sneers, curling her lip-glossed lips. “Jiyong thinks he’s too cool to share with us.”

“Yeah,” Sunye chimes in. “Why do you think you’re better than us, huh?”
 

SooHyun gives me a hard stare, obviously tryin’ to intimidate me. I wonder if he knows anything about Devlin.
 

I look to GeunSuk. “You can do what you want,” Geunsuk, the green-haired kid says. “Just as long as it doesn’t involve me.” What the hell is that supposed to mean? Kyumin is looking at the floor.

Choi leans forward. “Jiyong, you’ve been here a week already and haven’t opened up. Each of the other group members has shared a part of themselves with you. Why not share just a tiny bit of what’s been happening so your peers can feel connected to you in some way.”

She’s actually assumin’ I want to be connected to these people. Is she nuts?

“Just say something already,” JungAh urges.
 

“Yeah,” SooHyun agrees.
 

Choi gives me that we’re-here-for-you pity gaze. “Our group is held together when everyone contributes a part of themselves. Think of your sharing as the glue that makes us a unit where everyone helps each other and nobody is left out.”

She wants glue, I’ll give her glue. I’m not tellin’ them crap about Nick or Devlin, but something else is on my mind. I hold my hands up in surrender. “Fine. I almost kissed this girl, Dara, on Wednesday. It was on top of this stupid mountain she made me climb.” I shake my head in frustration just thinkin’ about it. The problem is, for the past two days I haven’t been able to stop thinkin’ about what that kiss would have been like.

SooHyun leans forward in his chair. “You like her?”

“No.”
 

“Then why did you almost kiss her?” JungAh asks.
 

I shrug. “To prove a point.” They’re all quiet and totally focused on me.
 

“What point would that be?” Choi asks.
 

“I kiss better than her boyfriend.”
 

GeunSuk’s hand flies to his shocked, open mouth. If that’s scandalous to him, I bet I can count how many girls he’s kissed on less than one hand.
“Did she kiss you back?” Sunye asks.

Soohyun raises his eyebrows. “Is she American?”
 

“We didn’t kiss. We almost kissed, and it wasn’t a big deal.”
 

“You like her,” JungAh says. When I sneer she says, “Oh, please. People say ‘it was no big deal’ when it is a big deal.”

“What does it matter, JungAh?” GeunSuk chimes in. “He didn’t actually kiss her, and she has a boyfriend. Whether he likes her or not, she’s taken.”

“You have to work on yourself, Jiyong, before you can have a healthy relationship,” JungAh says like she’s some sort of expert. Yeah, whatever. I don’t like Dara. The last thing I want is a healthy relationship . . . and I’m not even convinced that a healthy relationship even exists.

I lean back and cross my arms. “Just so you know, Mrs. C., I’m done talkin’.”

Choi gives me a nod of approval. “Thanks for sharing, Jiyong. We all appreciate your willingness to give us a glimpse into your personal life. Believe it or not, our group is more cohesive now because of you.”

I’d give a hand gesture to show what I think of her theory, but it’s probably a violation of the damn rules. I suffer through the rest of our group therapy session with the misfits, although I swear they’re all actin’ as if we’re friends now. When I walk out of the building at the end of the day, Seunghyun is in the parking lot waiting for me with Bom’s car.

When we’re at a stoplight, I see a couple walking hand in hand in front of us. I never see Taeyang and Dara holdin’ hands, so maybe one of them is a germ freak. “Dara’s got this boyfriend who’s a total Idiot,” I blurt out. “The two of them are ridiculous together.”

Seunghyun starts shaking his head.

“What?” I ask.
 

“Don’t get messed up with her.”
 

“I won’t.”
 

He laughs. “That’s what I said to Teddy when he warned me about Bom.”

“Let’s get this straight once and for all. I’m not you. I’ll never be you. And if I tell you there’s nothin’ between Dara and me, I mean it.”
 

“Fine.”
 

“She annoys the out of me most of the time, anyway.”
 

My brother’s response is another laugh.
 

When we get to the Parks’ house, nobody is home. Dara’s car is in the driveway with the passenger window open as usual.

“She needs it fixed,” I tell Seunghyun as we head toward it. I don’t think either one of us can resist imagining what the car would be like if it were fixed up. “The passenger door doesn’t open.”