We're paying for out breakfast burritos and bottles of soda at the gas station when Kyungsoo's iPhone rings. He answers it.

          "Where the are you?" his father's voice booms.

          I shiver. It might be the cool morning air, but I doubt it.

          "At the gas station," Kyungsoo answers, nodding for me to take the change from the cashier.

          "You don't have to come get us," Kyungsoo says, probably to dilute the anger, and heads out the door. "We'll be there in fifteen minutes." He takes off across the parking lot, walking so fast I have to jog to catch up.

        If we don't die first, I think, guessing that Mr. Do found my car. And my car is three or four miles down the road, meaning it will take a lot longer than fifteen minutes to get there.

          Kyungsoo shoves his phone into one pocket and the Coke into the other. Then he breaks into a jog. I follow, my burrito like a hot baton in a relay race.

I'm sweaty and panting by the time we spot my car. And Kyungsoo's father. And his tow truck. I gasp for air. Hands on my knees I catch my breath and say, "The tow truck? Crap."

          "Yeah," Kyungsoo agrees between breaths. "We'll never hear the end of this."

          "More like I'll never be able to pay him back." I imagine the pump at the gas station and how quickly the amount would blink from three digits to four to five, filling the thank of Mr. Do's tow truck.

We straighten up, square our shoulders and walk into the firestorm of Mr. Do's angry accusations.

          "Sorry for all the trouble," he says through a tight jaw. "And thank you for coming to get Jongin's car."

          "Yeah, Mr. Do, thanks for saving my bacon," I add.

          He scowls at me.

          "Can I help get this loaded up?" Kyungsoo asks, jutting his chin at my car. The tow truck is positioned in front of it.

          Mr. Do grunts a response, and I don't make a move. Kyungsoo, though, gets to work unfurling the chain and crawling under my car to hook it to the axel.

After a very long, very silent drive back to home in the cab of the tow truck, I walk home from Mr. Do's garage because I can't bring myself to call my mom. I let myself into the blissful quiet of my house. There's a grocery list on the kitchen table, and with how stressed my mom is, it's a pretty good guess she's at the supermarket.

So I turn the shower to hot. I step out of my smelly clothes and under the stream of water. When I'm finally clean, I pull on shorts and a tee and collapse onto my bed.

Mom knocks on my door. "Hey," she says through the open space. "How was your little vacation?"

          "Good." I admit, sitting up and swinging my legs over the edge of my bed. "Until my car died and I ended up owing Mr. Do for one helluva tow and an alternator."

          "Karma ," she says, sitting next to me.

          "You can say that again. Kyungsoo said he'd put the alternator in for me so I didn't run up a bill for labor on top of it all."

          "Look, Jongin, I am trying really hard to let you be an adult and make your own decisions."

          "Yeah, Mom. I know."

          "But this one?" she says touching my knee. "Well, it wasn't your shining moment. In fact, it was pretty stupid."

          I have half a thought that I should balme the whole fiasco on Kyungsoo. But I step up to the plate. "School's been stressful. We needed a break before exams."

          "I get that, Jongin. That's why I said okay to senior skip day, why I was okay with you spen