The house was quiet around me Thursday night, so when my phone chimed, it made me jump. I look at the screen to see a calendar notification. Date with Jisoo to go over Seoul packet. I had almost forgotten. I wondered if she remembered. I sent her off a quick confirmation text and got her answer back almsot immediately: Just got my reminder. Do you want to pick me up?

Yes. See you in a sec.

I stood from my desk and made my way down the hall, listening intently. The television was on in the living room, but I heard my parents' low voices on top of it. My mom laughed at something my dad said. I leaned against the wall with a smile. This was good. So good.

I walked into the living room. "I'm going out with Jisoo. Is that okay?" I glanced back and forth between the two of them. They sat close on the couch.

Dad look at Mom and some silent message was communicated in that look. Then she said, "That's fine."

"Thanks." I lingered for a few moments, not wanting to leave the rare scene.

"Was there something else?" my dad asked.

"No. I just . . ." I bent down and hugged them, one arm around my dad and the other around my mom. "Thanks."

They both laughed and hugged me back.

☘ 𝔏𝔬𝔱𝔱𝔬 𝔏𝔬𝔳𝔢 ☘

I showed up at Jisoo's front door with a pack of candies and the Seoul package she'd put together. I knocked. Her mom answered.

"Hi, Suzy. Let me grab Jisoo for you. I haven't seen you in a while."

"I know. I've been busy."

"You girls are always so busy. Congratulations on the lottery win, by the way."

"Thank you." Was I supposed to say something more after that line? I still had no idea how to respond to that. Thank you made it seem like I had earned it somehow.

She ushered me inside, then left me standing in the entryway.

Jisoo arrived a few minutes later. "I'm still not used to your hair like that."

I ran a hand through it. "Me neither."

She pointed at the pack of snack I held. "Are those for me?"

"Yes. I'm bribing you because I was a flake last night."

She smiled. "You don't need to bribe me, Suzy. You're my best friend."

I handed her the snack, anyway. "I know."

She freed a sweater from the hook beside us and slid on a pair of shoes. "Let's go."

In the car, Jisoo pulled the seat belt across her chest. "Wow, fancy."

"It's just a seat belt."

"No, I mean the car. There are so many lights and buttons."

"I know, I feel like it's spying on me sometimes and is going to take over my life."

Jisoo was for a minute, then she let out a burst of laughter. "You are still the biggest nerd."

"I know!" I picked up her Seoul pack and fanned her with it. "So where are we doing this?"

"Momo's Cafe?"

I tried to mentally calculate how many classmates would be at Momo's Cafe.

"Oh, right," Jisoo said, reading my mind like she always seemed to do. "My friend has become famous."

"Have not."

"If not now, surely after your big yacht party tomorrow."

"Our big yacht party," I said.

"I've done all of nothing."

"You gave me almost all the ideas for food to serve."

"True. Those are pretty awesome ideas, too." She watched street signs as we passed by. "Go to the one on Second Avenue. You're right, we won't get anything done at ours."

The one she was referring to was only a few miles farther, but it would make a difference.

I pulled into the parking lot and we got out of the car.

After ordering, we sat at a small table in the corner while we waited for our drinks to be called.

"So," I said, placing both palms flat on the table. "Do you have talking points?"

She smiled. "You know I do. Open to page one, please."

I rolled my eyes.

"I'm serious."

"I know you're serious, and that's why I love you."

"Then that's the first point. You love me so much that you can't bear the thought of us going to two separate colleges next year."

"You're right."

"I am?"

"Yes." I groaned. "Jisoo, I want to go to college with you. It's just hard, you know?"

"I don't know."

"My parents are finally doing better and I hate to disrupt that with a major life change."

"Seriously? You need to stay if they're not doing well and stay if they are?"

"I've just always had this image of me in a dorm room an hour away so that I can visit them whenever they need me."

"Even if it's not the best option for you?" She pointed at me. "For you, Suzy. Not for your parents or your brother or anyone else. For you."

"But I'm connected to those people you want me to view as separate entities. We are all intertwined."

"You can't be forever."

"Isn't that what family is?"

"But you have to live your own life at some point."

"I know." I patted the papers. "This was very persuasive."

"I hope so. That thing took me a week to put together. Seoul should hire me to do their pamphlets."

I giggled.

"Another point," she said, tapping the page in front of me. "Money. You always said an academic scholarship for Seoul was going to be so much harder to get than one for Busan. But you don't need to worry about that anymore. You have money now. You don't need scholarship."

"That's true."

"It's basically Ivy League," Jisoo said. "You worked your tail off for the last four years. You deserve to go to the school you earned."

My heart gave a jump. It would be pretty amazing to go to Seoul. I had worked hard. I'd always known the possibility to earning a scholarship there was next to none because the competition would be so high. That was one of the many reasons I'd never truly let myself consider it. But now . . .

"Suzy!" The barista called my name from behind the counter.

"I'll go get our drinks." I stood up and went to the counter, leaving Jisoo plotting behind me. I was sure she'd have some new angle by the time I sat down. I picked up our drinks and turned, nearly running cups-first into someone. I saved our drinks and his shirt just in time.

"Sorry," I said.

"Suzy?"

I met his eyes. "Jimin? Hi!" In my excitement I hugged him with my hands full of drinks.

"I thought I heard them say your name, but I didn't recognize you at first. You're not wearing your glasses. And your hair is a lighter color!"

"I'm not. And . . . yeah, I am."

"It looks good."

"Thanks. What are you doing here?"

"I told you I study at Momo's Cafe sometimes." He smirked at me like I had wound up here at his coffee cafe on purpose.

"Oh, right. I'd forgotten." Our of the corner of my eye I saw Jisoo, her eyebrows raised. "Come meet my friend."

He followed me back to our table where I set the drinks down.

"Jisoo, this is Zoo Jimin. Jimin, this is my best friend, Jisoo."

Jimin smiled. "We're still going with Zoo Jimin?"

"I needed to give her context."

"Because I've heard stories about you. Now I have a face," Jisoo said.

"I'm scared to hear what stories," Jimin replied.

I waved my hand through the air. "Oh, you know, the classics, dentures and vomit and that time you let the macaw out of the cage."

He cringed. "You're going way back now. And for the record, the cage opened itself."

I spun a chair from another table across the floor until it was between us, then patted it. "Have a seat."

Jimin pointed back to the other side of the store. "I should go grab my stuff. I've taken over a booth with my books. I'll be right back."

When he left I quickly sat down and leaned forward to whisper to Jisoo. "Don't say anything about the lottery thing. I haven't told them."

"Oh, that small thing?" she said, giving me a look of incredulity.

"It's a long story. I'll fill you in later." It really wasn't a long story. I hadn't told Jimin, then I hadn't told him some more. Now it was way past appropriate timing. That was the story.

"I won't say anything."

"Thank you."

Jimin came back and set a book on the table and his bag on the floor, then lowered himself into the chair between Jisoo and me. "Did Suzy also tell you that I'm really bad at Algebra II?" He pointed at the book.

"No, she didn't."

"You never told me you were really bad at Algebra II," I said, sliding the book to face me.

"I didn't? Huh. I probably didn't want to judge me."

My mouth fell open and I started to object when he winked at me. I gave a breathy huff instead.

I pushed his book back toward him and the Seoul packet that was underneath it came into view. Jimin picked up the packet and looked at the heading of the first page, which said in bold print, all caps: SUZY IS GOING TO SEOUL AND THIS IS WHY.

He handed me the packet. "You're going to Seoul?"

"And this is why," I said with a smile.

"Yes, Jimin," Jisoo said. "Help me convince Suzy to go to Seoul."

"The one four and a half hours away of here?"

"Is there another one?" I asked.

"Why do you need convincing?" He met my eyes, his expression so intense it made me blush a little.

"I . . . I'm just . . . I have a lot of choices." I had four choices in my drawer so far. All nearby the city of Busan. None of them Seoul University. None of them Busan University either, though.

"I'm sure every school wants you," he said.

Jisoo mouthed something at me across the table but I had no idea what.

"No. I mean, I don't. I have. I didn't apply to all of them. It costs money to apply so at the time I had to narrow it down." Oh my gosh, why was I so flustered?

Jisoo started leafing through Jimin's Algebra book.

"She's more addicted to schoolwork than I am," I whispered, happy for distraction.

"I am not," Jisoo said, but kept turning pages.

Jimin smiled. He really did have the best smile. And cheekbones. They were high and he had a great jawline actually. He had really full lips, too. I shook my head and forced myself to look away.

"Is this what you're working on?" Jisoo asked, holding up a folded piece of binder paper she had found stuck between two pages.

"And she's super nosy, too," I said.

"Yes," Jimin answered her. "Probability."

"Probability?" I piped up.

Jisoo laughed. "Now who's interested? That's Suzy's favorite unit."

"You have a favorite Algebra unit?" Jimin asked.

"Doesn't everybody?"

"No, I can firmly say no to that question. Maybe I can say that it's my least favorite section. I don't understand how Pascal's triangle works with it."

I took a sip of my latte, then flipped Jimin's book and paper toward me.

Jisoo chuckled. "You're in for it now, Jimin."

☘ 𝔏𝔬𝔱𝔱𝔬 𝔏𝔬𝔳𝔢 ☘

Thirty minutes later, I worried that Jisoo and I had overwhelmed Jimin. We were all three hovered over his book, shoulder to shoulder. Jisoo and I had both explained the concept in different ways and he seemed to be getting the hang of it, but I wasn't sure.

"I'm going to get a refill," Jisoo said, standing. "Anyone else want anything?"

I asked for another latte and Jimin shook his head. When Jisoo was gone, I pointed to the numbered question on the textbook. "Do you understand this one yet?"

"I think so. I didn't realize how much it would help to have the smartest girl in the world explaining things to me."

I knew he was being sarcastic but my cheeks went hot, anyway. Why did they keep doing that? "Second-smartest. Jisoo's the first." I held out my hand. "Let me see your notebook, I'll write another way for you to solve this problem."

He handed it over and I turned the page to get to a clean sheet, but it wasn't clean. It had writing on it. I didn't mean to read it, but my eyes immediately took in the words.

Jimin noticed what was there just as I was about to turn another page. "Oh." He turned the page quickly. "That's nothing."

"Is it a screenplay or story that you're working on?"

"Just some random ideas."

"It was good. Interesting."

He shrugged. I could tell he didn't want to talk about it so I dropped the subject and used the clean sheet of paper to explain the math concept.

He glanced over at me and I realized how close we were on this tiny two-seater table. The right side of my body was pressed against his left side, from our shoulders to our knees.

"Thank you," he said.

"I'm happy to help."

"That's the line you use on all the zookeepers. I now feel like part of your service hours."

"I'm sorry. That's not what I meant."

There was a sparkle in his eyes. "I'm just teasing you."

"Oh. Yeah." I needed to move away, my skin was on fire.

His eyes went down his book. "I'm not a total screwup," he whispered.

"What? I never thought you were."

"You're just so smart and focused."

"I think you mean boring."

His eyes snapped to mine. "No. Not boring at all. Pretty amazing, actually."

His words floated around my head, causing a buzzing sensation.

Jisoo saved me by plopping my drink down next to me. "I go you decaf this time so you're not up all night."

"Thanks." I used her interruption to push back from the table.

Jimin looked at the Seoul packet that was still sitting in my lap. "I better go," he said. "I told my mom an hour. It's been two." He held out his hand out to Jisoo. "Nice to meet you."

Jisoo shook his hand. "You too."

"See you Saturday, Suzy." He leaned down and gave me a hug that seemed to linger longer than normal (or was I just enjoying it more than normal?) Then he slung his backpack over his shoulder and was gone.

Jisoo crossed her arms and tilted her head at me.

"What?"

"He's what's holding you back from Seoul."

"What?"

"He's keeping you here. You'd be all in if it wasn't for that boy."

"That is so not true."

"This is why we had a pact, Suzy. A pact."

"I know. I haven't broken it. My hesitation has nothing to do with him and everything to do with my family." My burning face wasn't backing up my agrument at all.

"Good. Because your family I can work with. I'm not sure I can complete with Mr. Smooth Talker." She stared at the door he'd left through like he might come back and tell her she was right. But I knew he wouldn't. Jimin was just nice to everyone. I wasn't anything special to him.

"Now," Jisoo said. "Let's go over this packet point by point, okay?"

I nodded, but my eyes found their way back to the door.