“All I’m asking for is a ride back to campus,” I said to my sister an hour and a half later. “What else did you have planned for tonight? Reading chapter two on baby corn-muncher’s toilet training?”

“All I’m saying is drive yourself,” Bom replied, plunking down a plate on the kitchen table. “Why do you need a chauffeur?”

“We have two cars, my baby rabbit,” my father interjected.

I hated it when he called me that. The nickname hadn’t suited me even when I was four.

“Your mother is going to sigh all night over her students’ hopeless essays,” he continued, patting his hair, an unconscious habit that developed after he started combing it in odd ways to hide the thin spots. “And I’m preparing for the lit conference. Both cars are free.”

“Oh, never mind,” I huffed, pushing back my hair. How could I explain?

I was supposed to be on campus already. Hyun Joong knew this morning that I had ridden my bike. After the movie, I planned to tell him that I’d left it in the camp office but didn’t want to bike home in the dark. Then I’d ask for a ride. That way, if we didn’t exchange phone numbers, he’d at least know where I lived. But if I told the plan to Bommie, and things didn’t work out with Hyun Joong, it would be one more guy she’d needle me about.

I hurried upstairs and put on some mascara and lipstick, though I’d probably off most of it by the time I got there. At least my hair was neatly tied and I no longer wore Lee Joon’s sticky hand prints on my stomach.

I was wheeling my bike out of the garage when Bom strolled outside, holding up the car keys, jingling them. “I’ll tale you if you tell me why.”

I put away the bike and rode with her to YGU in silence. “Right here’s fine,” I said, when we had reached the edge of the campus, and then I climbed out quickly.

“Aren’t you going to tell me why?” my sister called to my back.

“I’ll tell you…after you tell me the reason why you suddenly went soft and offered me a ride,” I replied and closed the door. “You can’t be that curious, Bommie,” I said through the window. “And you’ve never been that nice. Must be the raging mother hormones.”

“Hey, you Brat! Dee!!!! Come back here and tell me,” She roared off.

I laughed and stuck my tongue out as I ran away from the car.

Hyun Joong was waiting for me outside the student center, sitting on an elevated block of sunny concrete that flanked the steps. One leg was straight out, the other drawn up, a muscular arm resting lightly on his bare knew. He could have been a piece of sculpture, some Olympic god gracing the student temple. His eyes were closed so he didn’t see me staring at him.

“Hyun Joong…Hyung Joong?” I said a little louder.

“Oh, Dara.”

“Hard day?” I asked softly.

He smiled. His eyes made me think of a hazy summer.

“You bet. A double-strength workout. When you’re at the top, coaches are tough on you.” He leaped down beside me. “Some friends of mine are leaving us a seat inside.”

The small auditorium was only half-filled. I guess the movie wasn’t a big draw. A professor, who looked as if he had been caught in the same fashion warp as my mother, gave the audience, which was mostly his film class, a lecture on B-grade sci-fi flicks. He went on and on about all the stuff of the unconscious that we were about to see come pouring out of this movie.

I sat between Hyun Joong and two guys named Eli and Alexander, gymnastic teammates who attended YGU. Though my eyes were on the lecturer, I was sharply aware of ever move Hyun Joong made. His arm bumped mine. His thumb twitched. He yawned.

“You interested in films?” Eli asked me, loud enough to disturb the students who were trying to hear the lecture.

“Or Hyun Joong?” Alexander said, grinning at me.

“Actually, I love sports,” I replied quietly. “But films are fun.”

“Do you love sports heroes?” Alexander asked, still grinning. With his face, he reminded me of a Jack-o-lantern Bommie and I made years ago.

“Do you consider yourself one?” I asked back.

Eli, who was hark-haired and probably thought that he was better looking than most guys in the school, turned and laughed in Alexander’s face.

“Dara’s kind of an athlete,” Hyun Joong said.

She’s an athlete, I heard Jae in my mind.

“Really,” said Eli. “You don’t seem the type. What do you play?”

“Volleyball, basketball and soccer for YGU, softball for recreation team.”

“Are your teams any good?” asked Eli.

“No, we stink,” I felt like saying, but he was Hyun Joong’s friend.

“You’re also from YGU,” I said proudly. After all, the girls had been state champs in volleyball. “We’re schoolmates you know.”

Eli looked blanked. “I, uh, don’t really follow women’s team. The guys’ basketball team is pretty good.”

The guys, for your information, have won four games in the last 3 years, you self-absorbed jerk!

“You should have seen the girls from the college gymnastics team stopping to watch today,” Alexander told me. “Hyun Joong gave them a real performance. I thought the girls would never leave.”

What the hell? Who was this guy, Hyun Joong’s agent?

“Oh, I’ve heard about the women’s team,” I said. “Too bad you guys couldn’t go to the regionals with them.”

I glanced sideways at Hyun Joong, but the put-down seemed to go right over his head. It didn’t go over the heads of the other guys, however, Eli gave me a sly look. Alexander changed the subject to athletic injuries.

The 3 guys discussed their injuries and treatments with the same enthusiasm and detail as my mother discussed childbirth experiences with Bommie. I found myself staring at parts of Hyun Joong’s body as he described one problem, and then the next. He seemed reluctant to end the conversation even when the movie had started. After several loud shushes from the people around us, we settled down to watch things coming out of a volcano (movie) that looked to me not like dark forms of the unconscious but messed up