Dara

My heart flutters and I get a flush of excitement at his words. “It’s d-d-dark. I can’t see anything.”

“Follow my voice, baby. I won’t let you fall.”

I reach out in the darkness as if I’m blind, all the while shivering from nervousness or the cold rain. I can’t tell which one is making me shake more. When our hands connect through the black night, he guides me to the blankets. I place my purse with the in it beside the blanket, then awkwardly hitch up my dress so I can sit in front of him.

He wraps his strong, muscular arms around me. “You’re shakin’,” he says, pulling me back against his chest.

“I c-c-can’t help it.”

“Are you cold? I can find more blankets if you—”

“No, don’t leave. S-s-stay with me.” I turn so my arms are wrapped around his waist. I’m nuzzling into his body heat, not letting him go. “I’m just n-n-nervous.”

He my hair, now wet from the rain. “Me, too.”

“Jiyong?”

“Yeah?”

Since I can’t see him, I reach up and feel his clean-shaven jaw. “Tell me something about your childhood that you remember. Something g-g-good.” It takes him a long time to respond. Doesn’t he remember anything happy about his life in Busan?

“Seunghyun and I always got in trouble after school when my ma was workin’. Seunghyun was supposed to be in charge of everythin’, but the last thing a thirteen-year-old kid wanted to do was schoolwork right when we got home. We’d have these contests we called the Kwon Olympics and create the most ridiculous events.”

“Like what?”
 

“Seunghyun had this stupid idea to cut off the tops of my mom’s hose and put tennis balls inside each leg. He called them the Discus. We’d fling them around and around like windmills, then throw ’em as hard as we could. Sometimes the farthest would win, and sometimes the highest.” He chuckles. “We were such idiots we’d stick them back in my ma’s drawer and think she’d never suspect it was us who mutilated them.”
 

“Was she tough with you?”
 

“Let’s just say my still hurts from that day, and it was seven years ago.”
 

“Ouch.”
 

“Yeah. Seunghyun and I spent a lot of time together back then. Once I wanted to be a pirate, so I went in my ma’s room, took her jewelry box, and buried it in the woods by our house. Most of it was fake jewelry and stupid free pins she had to wear at work. I came home and drew a map with a big red X where I’d hidden the box, then told Seunghyun to find it.”

“Did he?”

“No.” He gives a short laugh. “And neither could I.”
 

“Did your mom freak?”
 

“Freak is an understatement, baby. Every day after school I went to the woods to dig up her jewelry, but never could find it. Worst part is that her weddin’ ring was in the box . . . she never wore it because after dad died she didn’t want to risk losin’ it.”

“Oh my God. That’s horrible.”

“Yeah. It wasn’t funny at the time, that’s for sure. But one day I’ll find that box, if someone else hasn’t gotten to it first. Okay, your turn. What did you do to piss off the almighty Professor and the Queen Mother of Organic Teas?”

“I once hid my dad’s car keys so he wouldn’t go to work,” I tell him.

“Not bad enough. Give me somethin’ else.”
 

“I used to pretend to be sick so I could stay home from school.”
 

“Please, I was the champion at that. Don’t you got anythin’ really bad? Or have you been a Goody Two-shoes your entire life?”

“When I was mad at my parents, I used to sp