FIFTEEN.
REBOOT.
I am gloomily welding the amulets when I hear the door open.
“Back already?” I say, turning to the door-
And freeze.
“Finally. I’ve, like, been looking everywhere for you.” Sofia’s lip curls; I can see her scan the lab with judgemental eyes. “Can’t believe you’re ditching class to work. Typical scholarship student.”
“I’m not ditching class,” I retort. “I’m permanently excused from 1st period Physics.”
She snorts. “Right. I heard about your little stunt on the first day of school.”
“Besides, you’re a scholarship student, too,” I say, my eyes narrowed.
Her expression grows exponentially colder.
“That doesn’t mean I have to be a loser who stays cooped up in a lab all day,” she snarls.
“At least can’t happen to me in lab,” I growl. “Like my clothes getting stolen and being donated to Goodwill, or being humiliated at a party in front of half the senior class.”
Her eyebrows furrow in confusion for a moment. “Getting your clothes stol-,”
And then her eyes widen in realization.
“Taehyung never does run out of ideas, does he,” she murmurs.
“I know. What a genius.” I cross my arms. “What do you want?”
“Answer my texts,” she snaps, her voice back to being hard and condescending. “We’re meeting at Chopons again tonight for another mentor-mentee study sesh. Maybe you can drag yourself away from your jewelry long enough to grace us with your presence.”
A . She’s such a .
As she’s stalking towards the door, I say, “Why did you cover for me and Jin?”
Sofia narrows her eyes like she doesn’t remember what I’m talking about. “Excuse me?”
“Yesterday, at lunch. You didn’t tell me and Jin to bond. But you told Taehyung that you did.”
She gives me the most shriveling stare she can muster.
“You think I did it for you?” she says. “I didn’t want him to cause a scene. But, hey, while I’m here, I might as well try and drill it into your head.”
Sofia marches back towards me, her eyes burning with warning.
“Stay the away from Jin.”
Then she stomps out of the room.
I go the rest of the day without seeing Dev or Taehyung. Homeroom is uncomfortable; although Jin and I have a nice repertoire, there’s still an underlying awkwardness.
Plus, everyone is still throwing us judgemental glances.
“Dev really doesn’t like me, huh,” Jin remarks.
I grimace. “He’s just wary. Your friends aren’t the biggest fans of us.”
“Makes sense.” He pulls out his laptop and lets out a deep breath. “Alright. Magic.”
Swallowing, I echo, “Magic.”
Can he hear the trepidation in my tone?
“I... I guess we can start by looking at academic databases,” I say uneasily. “Look at scholarly articles and stuff. And then we could try narrowing it down to different areas we want to focus on.”
“Okay.”
“Okay,” I exhale.
We spend the rest of homeroom working silently. I can tell he’s as tense as I am about this- not only did ing Dev chose the most idiotic, dangerous topic he could, but he’s now MIA and doesn’t have to take any responsibility for it. My fists clench up into balls. When I see him again, I’m going to kill him. Sorcerer or no sorcerer, he needs to do his .
“We can work on this tonight at Chopons,” I tell Jin as the final bell rings. “Hopefully, by then, I’ll have found Dev.”
“If you don’t, it’s no sweat,” he shrugs. “We can make it work either way.”
Lucy and Tom meet me at the lab fifteen minutes later. I practically fling Dev’s ring at Tom.
“Give it to him when you see him,” I mutter. “He’s too much of a coward to face me.”
Tom looks at me in anguish. “You two need to stop fighting! It isn’t supposed to be like this! It’s us against them.”
“He’s right.” Lucy crosses her arms. “We already have to deal with a bunch of magical monsters who want to kill us. We don’t need in-fighting, too.”
“I’m not the one throwing a fit about a project in Homeroom.”
My expression is scary enough to tell Lucy and Tom not to push it. We move to constructing knives. While in theory they are easier to make, in practice, they are definitely not.
“It melted the mold!” Tom squawks, jumping away from the mixture. His foot catches on the baggy leg of his protective suit and he stumbles to the floor. “It’s gonna melt through the table, too!”
“!” I frantically run over with padding material in hand. “Get it into the disposal!”
“That was trial number 4,” Lucy says wearily. “It should’ve worked by now.”
I snort. “No way. That’s magic for you. It took me the better part of a week to make my first amulet. We have no ing clue what we’re doing, so it takes ten times longer.”
“Jesus. It’s almost 6, and we’ve virtually made no progress.”
“It’s 6?” I mumble- and then shriek, “Oh, , it’s 6? I have to be at Chopons! Sofia’s gonna kill me!”
“Let’s end for today, then, and start cleaning up,” Tom hurriedly suggests.
We sterilize and clean the lab in record time. I sprint out the door with my backpack and Lucy’s duffel bag in tow, panting furiously.
“Wait up!” Lucy hollers after me.
“Why... am I so... out of shape?” I wheeze.
“Stop running! I’m giving you a ride there anyway!”
“I’m going to die!” I kick the door open and sprint out into the parking lot. “Sofia’s going to be out for blood-,”
I stop in my tracks. The entire lacrosse team is standing in the parking lot, giving me hostile glares. Taehyung- my stomach shrivels in anger- is leaning back on the hood of his car. His features are twisted up into a contemptful smirk.
The door opens behind me. “Joo, you are so ing-,” Lucy stills as she sees the scene in front of me. Behind her, Tom grinds to a halt.
“Hey, Joo,” Jin says. Relief bursts in my chest as I see his familiar face. I crack a smile.
“Hey. Lacrosse practice just ended?”
“Yup.”
“Cool. Headed to Chopons?”
“Yeah. Want a ride?”
I look back at Lucy and Tom for guidance, who simply blink back at me with equally confused stares.
“Actually, yeah,” I say. “That would be great. I’ll see you guys later,” I whisper to Lucy and Tom.
“Have... fun,” Tom winces.
I give him a wry smile. “Oh, I’ll have a real ball there.”
“Are you coming to the game Friday?” someone calls. Jimin, who was apparently sitting in his car, about to leave, has stepped back out. His humorous expression is fixed on Lucy, who turns light pink.
“No way,” she says behind me. “We have to work.”
“Work? Work on what? It’s a Friday night!”
“Some of us have student council work to do,” Lucy informs him, her tone teasing. “You know, to make up for people who won’t be there because they’re on the lacrosse team.”
Taehyung’s gaze has been boring into me this whole time. As usual, I ignore him.
Jimin holds up his hands. “Tell you what. If I get all my done by Thursday, you have to come.”
“I’m sure Ivanna won’t mind either way,” Evan says in a knowing voice. His teammates erupt into snorts. Lucy’s smile wanes as Jimin punches Evan in the arm.
From the look on Tom’s face, I can tell he’s thinking the same thing as me: What a boy.
“Ignore them,” Jimin says. “Is it a deal?”
“We’ll see,” Lucy utters. She sounds like the cool, detached girl I know- clearly, being reminded of Jimin’s trysts has left her quite unimpressed. Jimin’s smile widens when he heard this, though.
“Alright, then!” he exclaims. “I’ll be looking forward to seeing you then.”
“What part of ‘we’ll see’ do you not understand?” Lucy grumbles.
“Ready to go, Joo?” Jin asks.
“Yup.” Under the premise of hugging Lucy and Tom, I lean in close to breathe in their ears,
“Keep those amulets on at all times.”
They nod in acknowledgement.
As I am walking across the parking lot to Jin’s car, Taehyung and I make eye contact. The rest of the lacrosse team hulks around him. They look like a pack of wolves readying themselves for the kill.
Their sinister smiles make me feel like we don’t stand a chance- amulets or no amulets.
“Oreo brownie cheesecake?” Jin asks as we stare at the display of luscious cakes.
I wistfully look at the display. “The turtle cheesecake looks great.”
“Turtle it is, then.” Jin looks at the cashier. “One turtle cheesecake, please.”
“Wha- you don’t have to!”
“This is for me.”
My face reddens in embarrassment. “Oh.”
He throws me an elfish smile. “You can have a few bites. You know. For the mozzarella sticks.”
I roll my eyes good-naturedly. “Those were supposed to be repayment for the oreo brownie cheesecake. You’re just starting the cycle all over again.”
“Good.”
We set our stuff down at a booth in the corner, where Sofia is typing away on her laptop. She gives Jin a perky wave when she sees him.
“How was lacrosse practice?” she asks.
“Alright.” Jin turns to me. “Let’s work on our report.”
“Ooh. What report?” Sofia says.
“Yeah.” Jin clears his throat. “It’s because of the whole plagiarism thing going on with the juniors. We have to write a sourced essay in groups of three.”
“Who’s your third?”
“Dev.”
The saccharine simper on Sofia’s face drops for an instant, but quickly reappears.
“Ew. Aren’t Reese and Chelsey in your homeroom? Why aren’t you working with them?”
Jin and I exchange uncomfortable glances. “Joo and I are friends, too.”
Sofia snorts. “Whatever. What’s the report about?”
“Magic.”
She gapes at us in disbelief- and then bursts into laughter. “You’re kidding me.”
“Nope,” I mutter.
“Whose idea was that?!”
“Dev’s,” Jin mumbles.
Sofia’s eyebrows shoot up. “Dev’s?”
She cackles even harder. I determinedly look down at my turtle cheesecake.
“Magic? Are you guys in, like, third grade? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard!”
“Let’s just start working,” Jin murmurs.
Sofia eventually shuts up. Jin and I start compiling sources and writing out an outline. Dev still won’t answer my texts, so it’s still just the two of us working on the project.
It’s a shame, I think grumpily as I watch a video about a detox tea that’ll give you magical powers- and let you lose 15 pounds in only 10 days. He’d really get a kick out of this. I type out, Magic is only 12 easy payments of $19.99 on our Google document of report notes.
“Who is that?” Jin says suddenly.
I look up. He is gazing out the window at the lake, his eyebrows furrowed in concern. When I follow his line of sight, I see a thin, frazzled woman clutching herself at the edge of the lake, sobbing harder than I have ever seen a person cry. Sofia turns around and looks at what we are gawking at.
“Oh. Her.” Sofia nonchalantly turns back around. “Chill,” she adds, glancing at me and Jin’s shock at her apathy. “She’s here half the time. Actually, according to the barista, she’s been by the lake all day.”
“Wha- that’s horrible!” I exclaim. “What happened to her?”
“I’m going to go check on her,” Jin says, pushing back his chair, but Sofia stops him.
“The last time someone asked her what was wrong, she went ape on them. Like, they had a black eye and fingernail scratches all over their face. Just leave her alone.” Sofia sighs. “That’s Janet Harvey.”
“Wait. The Janet Harvey?” I raise an eyebrow. “The poster woman for all suburban-mom-bloggers everywhere?”
“Her husband left her a few months ago,” Sofia continues, ignoring me. “The lake used to be his favorite spot or something, so she goes there all the time.”
Jin winces. “Does she have any other family?”
“Nope. Just herself, all alone in her big old mansion.”
Holy . That’s... terrible. I stare at Janet Harvey as she cries in the cold darkness. Everything that I’d ever heard about her had been a piece of fluff news on Facebook- something about how she’d come out with DIY stationery hacks or was publishing a book about keeping your kitchen organized. This miserable woman with wispy blonde hair flying everywhere... she is nothing like the polished lady I’d seen articles about.
“We should go get her,” I whisper.
“Don’t,” Sofia utters without looking up. “Just sit down and mind your own business.”
Instead of continuing to work on our project, I surreptitiously Google Janet Harvey. Links upon links about memoirs, interviews, and meet and greets come up, but nothing about her emotional breakdown. Apparently, she’d moved to Windsong from New York City two years ago. Here, she’d met Paul Hernandez, a local who’d made a fortune collecting rare jewels, and married him a few months later. I click on a photo of them at a charity event. They look like a picture-perfect couple: a tall, dark-haired man with his arm around a smiling, gorgeous blonde woman.
It makes no sense. She seems- seemed- like a genuinely happy person.
And then I remember Lucy's words from ages ago.
This town is toxic. If we don’t destroy it, it’ll destroy us first.
My teeth clench.
Windsong-
“I saw it!”
My head snaps up in shock. Janet Harvey herself is standing in the middle of Chopons, her eyes wild with emotion. Her hands tremble as she glares at the customers in the cafe, who are all gaping at her in astonishment.
“I saw it! I saw it right here!” she shrieks. Her finger points to an empty table. “It was on the table!”
“Ma’am, please calm down,” the barista says shakily. I see people pull out their phones to call the cops.
“Is she on drugs?” Sofia whispers with wide eyes.
“His skin was right here!” Janet yells. “I- I had it in my armoire for years until he found it again! His skin was there! On the table!”
Skin? I look at the table, which is- again- completely bare.
“It’s definitely drugs,” Sofia says, shaking her head.
The sound of sirens grows closer and closer. A few minutes later, cops have arrived onto the scene.
“Ma’am, if you could come with us,” an officer says, gently escorting Janet out.
“Stop it!” she screams. “Get your hands off of me! I have to get his skin! I have to find it!”
She continues screaming while the officers carefully pull her out of Chopons. Everyone is dumbstruck by how... awful the situation is. Never have I seen a person look as desperate as she does.
My stomach churns as her sobs echo through the building, seem to ring through the air long after she is gone.
“We’re here.”
I blink. We are parked outside the Kim residence. Jin is staring at me concernedly.
“Hey. You okay?” he asks.
“Y-Yeah. Sorry. I’m just... out of it.”
“You’re shaking.”
“I’m just cold.”
“Here.” He takes off his lacrosse varsity jacket and hands it to me. “Take it.”
“Dude, thanks, but it’s okay. I’m going to be inside in a minute, anyway.”
“It’s fine. Just give it back to me tomorrow. Where is your jacket, anyway? It’s almost November.”
I grimace. “You didn’t hear about Taehyung’s Goodwill prank?”
Jin’s eyes widen in realization- and then he curls his lip in disgust.
“Keep my jacket,” he says, pressing it into my hands. “I insist,” he adds, cutting off my protests. “I have other jackets. Just take this one.”
We stare at each other in silence. My eyes search his.
“Thank you so much,” I say quietly. “You’re a really great guy, Jin.”
He smiles, shaking his head. “Nah. Your standards are just off because you’ve been around Taehyung too much.”
“No. You’re great by any standards.” I grin. “Wow. Can’t believe I’m in possession of a Windsong lacrosse varsity jacket. Am I cool now?”
Jin rolls his eyes. “Good night, Joo.”
“Night, Jin.”
I’m smiling as I walk in, despite the fact that I’m still a little shaken up from what happened at Chopons. The heat from the fireplace in the living room is a wonderful change from the freezing cold weather outside.
As I continue reading Magical Spells and Practices, Volume 1, I can’t help but keep thinking about Jin. He’s unexpectedly one of the nicest people I’ve met in this awful town. What if I hadn’t gotten to know him- or Lucy, Dev, and Tom, for that matter? If Janet Harvey had people like this by her side, would she still be going through the same thing?
Was it the magic in this place that drove her mad?
A/N: YUHHHH I'M IN SEOUL RIGHT NOW!!! I LOVE THIS CITY OMG!! Y'all tell me what to do tho I have a week left here and I've seen all the big hotspots so if you guys know any ~hidden gems~ of whatever please tell me!!
also i am sooo excited to post these next few chapters oh my goddddDDddd
edit: if i put lina instead of lucy one more ing time im going to slap myself in the face with my hairbrush
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