PROLOGUE:
September 22, 2012

Their legs swayed over the edge of the furthest dock, shoes barely skimming the top of the water as their blackened silhouettes sat in stark contrast against the dusty mauve of the twilight. A buoy bobbed in the water nearby, and they listened to the sharp tolling of a ferry bell as it traveled across the horizon. Jisoo stabbed another rice cake with a toothpick and put it into , watching the careful look on Jinyoung’s face as he drank from the beer can.

“So?” she asked. “What’d you think of that one?”

Jinyoung creased his brows and then took another sip to be sure of his opinion. The sun was about to set on his eighteenth birthday. To celebrate, Jisoo had bought him a cake for the two of them to share and then got him to buy a variety of beers from a local convenience shop for him to sample. Always the law-abiding citizen, Jinyoung had always refused to drink alcohol at parties until he was of age. 

“It sort of just tasted like carbonated water,” Jinyoung said, sloshing his tongue around his mouth. 

“What?” Jisoo said, picking up the can he drank from and taking a drink herself. It was good.

“It was alright,” Jinyoung said, leaning back.

“Your taste buds are whack, you know that?” Jisoo said, reaching for a box of pepero that they’d ask bought from the convenience store. Jinyoung shrugged. Their little picnic at the end of the pier consisted of a single order to spicy rice cakes, two boxes of pepero, a sweet potato cake, and six cans of beer of different brands, of which three had been opened.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Beer is just beer to me. I don’t really taste a difference.”

“You are so lucky you have me, then,” Jisoo said, pointing a pepero stick at him. “You poor soul. Where would you be without me? Lost, probably adrift in the middle of the ocean drinking mediocre alcohol.”

Jinyoung scoffed. “Fine,” he said, pushing the can at her. “What does it taste like to you, Professor?”

Jisoo smirked as she took the can in hand.

“I saw a video about this. There’s a special way of tasting beer to really draw out the flavor.” 

Jisoo brought the can closer to her face and smelled it. Metallic and strong. 

“Don’t laugh, though,” she warned. “This is expert beer tasting technique.”

She tipped some of the beer into and then immediately pursed her lips and started making a gurgling noise, but then the liquid shot straight out of and onto her lap, leaving a trail of saliva dripping from her lip. Jinyoung, who had been drinking from another can, did a spit-take as he double over in laughter. 

“You did that on purpose just to make me laugh, right?” he asked in between laugh attacks. His side was starting to hurt. Jisoo wiped the drool off with her sleeve, also laughing in spite of herself.

“No! That’s how you’re supposed to do it!” Jisoo said. She picked up the can again. “Hold on, let me try again.”

She took another sip and tried to gurgle it again, only to accidentally spit it out a second time. Jinyoung erupted into laughs again. Jisoo punched his shoulder.

“Yah!” she said. “Stop laughing, or next time I’ll spit it into your face!”

“Is that how experts do it?”

“Ugh. You spit beer all over your birthday cake, too! We were supposed to eat this.”

Jinyoung skimmed some of the frosting off the top of the cake and it off his finger.

“Still tastes fine to me.”

Jisoo smacked his shoulder again. “Gross,” she said. “And you shouldn’t laugh. This is serious stuff, this is the big leagues. I saw it on the internet.”

Jinyoung laughed again, swiping one of the decorative slices of yam from the top of the cake and taking a bite. Despite the rain of beer that came down on the pastry, it really didn’t taste to bad. Jinyoung silently commended the baker.

“Well, whatever that was,” he said. “You should do it again at my party, everyone will die laughing.”

Jisoo’s smile faded. Noticing the shift in mood, Jinyoung cast her a curious glance. She was biting her lip. 

“I’m really sorry, Jinyoung,” Jisoo said. “But I can’t go.”

“What?” Jinyoung said incredulously. “Why not?”

“I told you,” she said, fidgeting. “I leave in twelve hours. I need to pack, and I need a good night’s sleep. My flight’s at seven in the morning.”

Jinyoung pursed his lips, took another drink of beer, an