Jino was the first to return with the four grounded boys in his wake and Sehun and Jinsu were quick to get out of their way.  Yixing had rather sensibly pointed out to Minseok that leaving Jinsu and Minhwan alone on the Attayear would have been a terrible idea, and since Jinsu had wanted to stay aboard, Minhwan and his friends had been kicked off with Jino to supervise them.  Jongdae and several others came back with a large haul of meat that they’d hunted – Han having seasoned some of them the previous night and shown them how to hang them properly for the best taste.  Kyuhyun and Minho took over cooking the evening meal for everybody and there was a generally festive atmosphere as they all sat down to eat.  Jinsu found herself sandwiched between Sehun and her cousin with Jongdae diagonally opposite as Kyungsoo served them all bulgogi from the plate in the middle of the table.  Jongin was chatting to Baekhyun and Taemin, only vaguely aware of the fact that there was food on his plate, and Jinsu smiled to herself over her glass of pineapple juice as the lanky boy accidentally put his hand straight into his food and withdrew it with a yelp, burnt.

Content to let the boys do the talking, Jinsu basked in the pleasant feeling of being welcome at a table full of people.  With any luck, it would continue once they were all back home, and she was excited at the prospect of telling Jimin about it.  And about telling Girlfriend-Jimin that she’d made friends with Sehun.  She could invite Chanyeol over for movies.  Maybe study-dates with Kyungsoo to jack up their English grade even better than it currently was would be a possibility.  She might even be able to watch Sehun play in school basketball matches and cheer him on from the sidelines.

With the end of dinner came a flurry of announcements.  The Dive was planned for after they’d all gone to bed, since they’d already experienced it one way and they’d be able to sleep away a fair bit of the journey.  Briefings for things like talking to journalists and what they could and couldn’t say about the machine would come once they were nearing present time, and Jino would be coming round to inspect their souvenirs, more or less like a customs official, to say whether they could keep them or would have to turn them over to the authorities as cultural heritage.  Jinsu discovered that Jongdae’s friend Lee Soohyun had been the official record of their stay and that he was willing to take any contributions that anybody might have so that he could write up the report before they got off the Attayear.  There was also going to be a prize for the best photograph from Balhae, which she was pretty sure Kyungsoo would have won, and when they were all awake, there was going to be a general discussion forum about their experience on the Attayear and anything they thought could be changed or improved.

Minseok took Jinsu aside as everybody filed out of the kitchen--dining-room area.

“I don’t know if your father will give you another chance to come on board the Attayear,” he said, “and since this is your family’s machine and you put a lot of effort into making the communal spaces look so good, do you want to come down to the bridge and see how all the technology works with the Dive?”

Jinsu agreed with excitement, and he told her to meet him in the main computer room in an hour’s time.

The hour passed in giddy bursts of happiness.  Jinsu spent some of it rolling around on her bed and giggling to herself, looking forward to something none of the others were going to be privy to and to telling her big brother all about it.  Some of it was spent beginning to pack, which was difficult to do neatly with her arm in a sling, but Jinsu was in a good mood and determined, and even if she had to stop to straighten clothes out so they wouldn’t get crumpled every eight or nine seconds, she still made progress.

The final thing she did before going downstairs again was to write a note to the mystery chef.  Unlike before, this note was easy to write and didn’t require redrafting.

Thank you for all the delicious food!  It would be nice to know who you are so I can thank you in person, but if you don’t want me to know, I respect that.  I read once that the finest of pleasures are always the unexpected ones, and this has certainly been true of your beautiful breakfasts.  If there’s anything I can do for you or any way I can repay you, please know that you are always welcome at the Park household for any reason.

Signing it, Jinsu slipped the piece of paper onto the door half-behind the rota as she had done on previous occasions when she left the room and headed downstairs.  The lights of the Attayear were dimmed, much as in a plane during a long haul flight for the sleeping period, lending a soft ambience to the interior, and she hurried down the stairs to the flight deck.

Minseok was waiting for her but already busy with preparations for setting off.  The thrum of the engines was much stronger in the main computer room than elsewhere, most likely because the walls had semi-soundproof padding for all the other rooms, and Jinsu had been able to feel the power of those engines vibrating through the stairs as she walked down them.  Minseok patted a chair, inviting her to sit next to him in front of the main computer.

“The power up process is almost complete,” he told her.  “We should be all set to launch in abou