I was still thinking about yachts, even at the zoo, as I walked to my day's assignment: the train ride station. It was one of my favorites. When I rounded the ticket booth, I saw Jimin up ahead, clipping the metal chains for the line onto their respective poles. Jimin and I got stationed together a lot. I knew Namjoon liked to partner up similar age groups and there were only a handful of high school students. But still, odds dictated I should only be with Jimin once a month. Probably even less.

Why was I questioning this? It was a good thing. I had fun with Jimin. I hoped he was having fun with me, too, otherwise this really for him.

He smiled my way.

I waved and, when I reached him, helped clip up the tail end of the chain.

"Suzy. How are you?"

"I'm good. How are you?"

"I'm bored out of my mind."

"Still no phone or television?" That would explain his continued lack of knowledge about my lottery win. He'd have to be completely cut off from the online world right now not to know. People were tweeting and Instagramming and SnapChatting about it constantly. Even though Jimin and I didn't go to the same school, we were online friends and people were tagging me all over the place.

"No," Jimin replied. "This is the torture of our day."

"I figured," I said, feeling relief. "I haven't gotten any texts from you this week."

"I know. My thumbs are going through withdrawal. It seems my friends are all going through withdrawal as well. I didn't think my texts were that great. Can you even remember what the last text I sent you said?"

I was surprised to find that I could. Should I admit to that? "It's more about being able to instantly communicate with someone. There's power in that, don't you think?"

He nodded. "We've gotten used to instant validation for sure."

"So how have you kept yourself busy without the time that is the online world?"

"Starbucks and I have become the best study partners ever. Maybe that was my mom's goal from the beginning. Take away my phone and suddenly even homework looks interesting."

"You study at Starbucks?"

"Almost every night. I'm becoming you, Suzy."

I wrinkled my nose at home. "You'd be lucky to have my grades. You shouldn't make fun of what it takes for me to get them."

"True."

"Do penguins have knees?"

"What?" He grabbed a rag off the railing and began wiping down the cars of the train.

"That was the last text exchange we had. Well, before my texts started going into a black hole."

He met my eyes, giving me a curious look, and I wished I'd kept my mouth shut. "That's right," he said. "Why were we talking about penguins, anyway? We don't have any here."

"I think we were talking about all the animals we don't have at the zoo that we wished we did."

"I don't think we came to a conclusion on if penguins have knees."

I retrieved a trash bag from the cupboard beneath the booth. I lined the can that we'd soon fill with used tickets. "They do. I looked it up."

"Of course you did."

"Why wouldn't I?"

"There's something about just pondering a question."

"About penguin's knees?"

He laughed. "yes. That's particularly deep question."

I smiled. "You should major in philosophy." My phone said we had ten more minutes until our station opened. I looked around to make sure we were ready for the horde of kids that would soon be surrounding us.

"I totally should," Jimin replied.

"But you're not, right? You're majoring in screenwriting or filmmaking or something movie-related."

"That's a really hard industry to break into and ..."

"And what? Is Jimin backing down from a challenge?"

"Jimin?" He looked around.

"Are you mocking me for referring to you in the third person?"

"No, but if we're going with third person, maybe you should call me Zoo Jimin. It makes me sound like a superhero or something."

I smiled. "My friends has been calling me Superhero lately."

"Superhero? Why?"

"Oh ... because ..." There I went again, speaking before thinking.

He laughed a little. "You love saving people or some?"

"I would love saving animals."

"Of course. But she should at least call you Super-woman."

"True." I went to the podium and removed the microphone and bell. "Well, I think you should try screenwriting. You can always change your major later."

Jimin put his arms out to either side. "Hold the phone, Suzy."

"Hold the phone? Did you really just say that?"

"I did, and I'm owning it."

"You can have it. It's up for grabs from where it was left in nineteen eighty."

"People have used it more recently than nineteen eighty."

"I"d like to recorded proof of that."

He laughed.

"So wait, why am I holding the phone? Not your phone, because you don't have one."

"Ouch. Rub it in a little more." He pointed to the ground about ten feet away from us. I followed the line of his finger.

"What am I looking at?"

"You don't see it?" He took me by the elbow, leading me over to the spot, then pointed again. A penny, dull with age, sat head-side up on the cement between us. "That's your penny, Suzy."

We stood nearly forehead to forehead as we stared down at it. "Did you put that there?"

"No, I swear."

"I think it's your penny. You saw it first."

"No, I already found five pennies' worth of luck here. It's only fair."

I smiled, then bent down and picked the penny up, sliding it into my pocket. "Do you really believe in lucky pennies?" I looked up at him, not realizing how close we still were. If I backed up, it would seem like it bothered me. It didn't bother me. Maybe it should've. But he smelled really nice - like hair product and soap.

"I believe in making our own luck," he said. "But a talisman now and again can help motivate us."

"You're kind of a dork," I whispered.

A smile took over his face. A really cute dork.

"Is this where we can ride the train?" a voice to my left asked.

That's when I finally stepped back from Jimin and took a deep breath, clearing my head.

"Yes, this is it," I said to the little boy.

A line of kids and their parents, twenty deep, had formed between our set-up chains.

"Who's ready for some fun?" Jimin asked, pulling the train whistle twice.

The kids cheered.

I picked up the microphone and clicked it on. "First we need to talk about the rules of the train," I told the kids. "No standing up in the cars."

The kids laugh, and I wasn't sure what was so funny until I turned and saw Jimin walking from train car to train car pretending like he was going to fall with each step.

"Yes, don't do what Jimin is doing or you might get hurt. And keep your hands and feet in the car at all times."

"And when you get to the tunnel," Jimin said, "yell as loud as you can. I want to hear you all the way from here." He stood in the middle of the train, one foot balancing on two separate cars. "Suzy, come help me, I think I'm stuck."

They laughed and I rolled my eyes. "This is why we follow the rules. Just like all these kids will, right?" I asked them.

"Yes," they all sang back to me.

Jimin said, "No, really, my shoelace is stuck."

I walked over and pulled it free from where it had caught on a hinge. He jumped down a gave me a hug from behind. "You saved my life, Superwoman."

The kids laughed even more, and I wriggled out of his hold. "A huge dork," I whispered as I headed over to collect the tickets, hoping he couldn't see my red cheeks.

☘ 𝔏𝔬𝔱𝔱𝔬 𝔏𝔬𝔳𝔢 ☘

"I love this station" I said after the last load of kids exited the train.

"You do?" Jimin asked.

"Don't you?" I sat up on the railing, facing where he stood by the turnstile.

"It's not my favorite," he said. "Why do you like it so much?"

"Because the kids love it and they get to look at the animals while sitting in a train. That's pretty awesome."

"Yes, I remember loving it as a kid."

"Did you grow here in Busan?"

"Gyedan-gil and then North Hyedan-gil. You?"

"I didn't know you lived in Gaeundae-gu. That's probably why we ran into each other at the K-mart on my birthday."

"You lived there, too?"

"Not in Haeundae-gu, like you, but yes."

"Haeundae-gu?"

"It's a place. So what's your favorite station to work here if not the train?"

He seemed to consider this question intently.

"Answer carefully," I said when he was taking too long. "I can interpret your entire personality and future based on what you say."

"About half," Jimin said. "The other half know exactly where they want to sit. Like me, I always know where I want to sit on a train."

He grabbed my foot and gave it a tug, nearly pulling me off the railing. I kicked my foot free and settled back into place.

"I like the Outpost," he said.

I raised my eyebrows. "With the python and the cockroaches and the world's biggest spider?"

He leaned against the fence next to my leg. "What did that tell you about my personality?"

"That you like icky things."

"Icky? Is that an SAT word?"

I smiled. "It's accurate. That's all that matters. What do you like about the Outpost?"

"I feel like it's the only place left in the zoo where they actually let the animals still behave like they would in the wild. They eat live mice. Live insects. They would never put a live animal in the ocelot cage. Can you imagine the outrage if they did?"

"That's true. I think that's what I don't like about the Outpost."

"Yeah, it can be disturbing. But it's real life, you know? That's how things really work. No pretense. No faking." He said it with such intensity that it surprised me. I hadn't seen that side of him before. Then just as quickly as he'd gone serious, his smile was back. "But snakes are also really really cool."

"I think you mean icky."

He chuckled, then we were silent for a couple minutes. I watched kids climbing onto the carousel across the way from us, squealing in excitement. I could hear the music emanating from the ride. Rosé was working the carousel today. She held up a bubble wand and was filling the area around the horses with bubbles and then popping them right along with the kids. I noticed Jimin watching Rosé, too. Or watching the bubbles. Or both. I wondered if Jimin liked her. She seemed like his type-fun and loud and pretty.

Even though I'd been joking, maybe Jimin's station choice really given me insight into his personality. He didn't like fakers, which is all I'd been with him for the last several weeks.

"I need to tell you something," I said, taking a deep breath.

"Let me guess. You want to go on a train ride?" He gestured toward the front car.

"No. There'll be a line of kids waiting when we get back. And we'll get in trouble."

"Those are two different reasons."

"And they're both valid."

He shrugged one shoulder as if disputing that fact. "So what do you need to tell me?"

Before I could answer, a foreign kid and his mom came to the front of the line and asked in a half-English and half-Korean, "Is the train still going? We bought a ticket."

"Yep," Jimin said, "come aboard."

The boy wound through the chain ropes, then pushed through the turnstile and ran up and down the length of the train looking for the perfect seat. On his second pass, Jimin smiled and the mom shook her head.

"Do all the kids do this?" she asked.

"About half," Jimin said. "The other half know exactly where they want to sit. Like me, I always know where I want to sit on a train."

The woman smiled at Jimin, then said, "Really? Do you ride a lot of trains?"

"I just meant this train," he said. "I only live about fifteen minutes east of here."

She nodded. "In the richer neighborhoods? Then you didn't have to work since you're well off."

"Well, my parents are well off with their careers. But I like working, making money for myself.'

"I mean I guess? You're still young and your parents are providing for you," she said.

"I don't think a better neighborhood means anything," Jimin said, acting like he hadn't understood the implication of her statements. "I like making money for myself. What about you? Are you living in a richer neighborhood?"

"I found one!" he son exclaimed. "Come on, Mom!"

"I'm coming."

"I got this ride," I said, sliding into the conductor seat.

"Thanks," Jimin said.

I pulled the whistle and set us in motion.

When we were done, the lady said, "Thank you."

"No problem," Jimin said, still friendly as ever. Then he looked at me and his smile fell a bit. "Was that rude?"

"What? NO."

"I don't mind telling people my family's history, but only people who aren't asking out of some weird need to categorize living info."

"Really, Jimin, you don't have to explain yourself to me. It wasn't rude. I thought you handled that maturely."

"We've been living in that area for a long time. My grandfather help built that area and its known he is the landowner. My parents were born and met there. I was born there. I've never thought of us living in a rich neighborhood."

I put my hand on his arm. "People are idiots. Do you get that a lot?"

"Only when I want to explain my living expenses, I get that more than I should. I acknowledge that celebrities and other well known people live in that neighborhood and it's not normal for others."

"I don't think where you live should define you as a person."

"I totally agree, because of where I live, my parents put me in private school."

It was hard to relate, having never experienced that myself. I was in an average neighborhood with public school education. But I felt for him. "I'm sorry you have to deal with that."

He sighed. "Sorry. I didn't meant to go off."

"You are allowed to vent whenever you need to."

"I try not to myself get frustrated or I'd spent my life in a constant state of frustration. That's no way to live."

"I'm just reviewing every stupid thing I've ever said to you or anyone in the past."

"You've been fine."

I nodded my head to the left and hopped off the railing. "Come on. I'm going to buy you a slushy lemonade."

"You're going to buy an overpriced lemonade? What are you-made of money now or something?

I met his eyes for a second. Wait. Was he making the same kind of jokes I'd been hearing for the last several weeks? It didn't take long to realize he wasn't. That he'd said it in innocence. "Yes, I am," I answered truthfully, "a lot of it." But he only laughed.