High winds and snow made it impossible for anyone to go out Saturday night. As the snow fell, Bom shifted from piano exercises and Schubert to love songs – long, sad love songs that made me crazy. Then Sunday morning Chaerin put me in an even better mood by modeling outfits she might wear New Year’s Eve. Sometime the previous evening, while I was finishing my romance novel, Chaerin had called Jae and asked him to go with her to Top’s big year-end party. He, of course, said yes.

By noontime Sunday the storm had tapered to flurries. I spent the afternoon clearing the walk and driveway and would have happily shoveled all the roads in town as an excuse to be away from the house. But the basketball game was that night, and I eventually had to come inside to take a shower.

At dinner my mother passed around overcooked chicken with kimchi and said how delighted she was that I was going to the game with my sisters. Then I informed her I would be meeting Hyun Joong and Chaerin was going with Jae. She looked confused.

“That’s a terrible arrangement,” she said. “When the holidays are over, you’ll all end up miles away from each other.”

“It’s safer that way,” my father remarked.

“I already have Jae’s e-mail address,” Chaerin told everyone. “And I can stay with Dara Unnie on weekends.”

I choked on my chicken, then gulped down some water. “You can’t stay with Hye Sun Unnie.”

She smiled at me. “You don’t really mean that.”

“I do mean it. My room’s small, and I’ve got my own life at school now.”

“How fortunate for you, unnie,” Chaerin said coolly, “that I didn’t try to keep you out of my life at my school. You sure managed to land yourself in the middle of things.”

“I didn’t try to.”

She gave a little shrug. “Well, in the end you did me a big favor, getting me off the hook with Hyun Joong. Not that I ever really encouraged him,” she exaggerated, “but I hate to disappoint guys who want to date me.”

“One of the tragedies of your young life,” I muttered under my breath.

“Funny how things turn out for the best,” Chaerin said. “All’s forgiven, Dara Unnie.” She breezed upstairs to make herself more beautiful, if that were possible.

“You don’t look too happy for someone who just been forgiven,” my father observed.

I glanced up from my plate, blinking away my miserable mental image: Jae and me in Busan’s waiting parlor, making small talk, while Chaerin finished dressing. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Bom shake her head at Dad. The subject was dropped.

**

Siwon picked up Bom and me at 7 pm. I hadn’t gotten a good look at him my first day home, but I could see now that with his hair, eyes and cheekbones, he was a guy with a future in soaps.

When we arrived at the school gym, a mob had already gathered for the traditional holiday game. In places near YGU’s, not just students but adults and kids show up to cheer on their team. People had brought homemade signs. Foil streamers and pom-poms in YGU’s school colors, floated, shook, and shimmered. Music blared. The game hadn’t begun, but the place was already rocking.

Both teams were warming up. As the three of us made our way along the sidelines, looking for an empty space in the stands, Hyuna, my sisters’ friend, caught me by the arm.

Her hair looked like a lion’s mane tonight. A big Y stretched over the chest of her cheerleader sweater and narrowed down to her waist, where a short skirt with pleats flared over full hips. “Hey, girl,” she greeted me.

“Hey, Hyuna! You look terrific.”

“Thanks. You know we’ll do our best, Dara, to cheer him on.”

“Him?”

“Everyone,” she called to the other girls on the squad, “this is Dara. Park Dara.” They gathered around.

“Bom and Chaerin’s sister,” I explained.

“Oh, really?” a dark-haired cheerleader replied. “I didn’t realize that.”

“We wrote a new cheer for Hyun Joong,” another girl told me.

“Well, that’s nice,” I said. It wasn’t until I walked away that it sank in; I was not being introduced as my sisters’ sister but as Hyun Joong’s date.

Bom and Siwon had gone ahead and claimed part of a bench in the stands. I climbed up after them.

“They got a great turnout,” I said.

“Everyone in this area shows up for sports,” Siwon remarked. “It’s the one thing they can all understand.”

I glanced around the gym. “There’s Junsu,” I said, standing up and waving to him, but he was busy taking pictures. Min, who was sitting with his father and Aunt Hyori, saw me and waved back from the next set of stands. Before he could squirm his way over to us, his father collared him.

As people squeezed into the packed gym it was becoming more and more difficult to hold on to seats for Chaerin and Jae.

“Isn’t your sister ever on time?” Siwon complained.

The teams lined up to be introduced. The announcer called the names of the visiting team first and for each team the bench players before the starting lineup. When everyone on the home team but Hyun Joong had run out to the center and high-fived his mates, the announcer finally called out, “Starting at forward, YGU’s team captain, senior, number 10, Kim Hyun Jooooooong!” The gym erupted.

It was weird, totally weird, feeling the bleachers vibrate, having hundreds of fans cheering around me, drums beating, girls waving their pom-poms for the guy who would be driving me home tonight. I felt as if I’d taken over some other girl’s body.

We stood for the National Anthem, facing forward the flag that hung at the far end of the gym. Bom elbowed me as the anthem started. “Hyun Joong’s looking for you.”

Hyun Joong and I turned and saw each other at the same time. He continued to gaze up at me, and I flicked my head in the direction of the flag, signaling him that he was supposed to be looking that way. He just gave me a heart-stopping smile and wink.

The Siwon twisted around next to Bom, searching the rows behind us. “Why does that photographer keep looking up here?” he asked.

“Do you mean Junsu?” I replied, glancing sideways at Bom.

She shrugged and pouted.

The anthem ended, and the starting players took their positions. Hyuna and her squad raised their pom-poms. Jump ball, jump ball, hey hey hey!

I knew most of the cheers and was in the mood for hollering. A few minutes later Hara, the striking dark-haired girl from the drama club, scrambled up beside the three of us. “What a mouth you h