I pressed my lips together tightly, eyeing Yejun up and down for some sign he was joking. “The Japanese descendants follow the same timeline,” I said.
“Yes,” Yejun said, nodding vigorously, “because Korea and Japan are in on it together.”
I sighed and shut my laptop. The idea that Korea and Japan would conspire together about anything was even more unbelievablethan a secret second timeline. The descendants only cooperated across countries because they didn’t have a choice—you couldn’t exactly fix the timeline in two different ways at once. “Why would you tell me this?” I said. “Is this some sort of test? You think I’ll just believe anything some stranger tells me?”
His expression crumpled at my words, a sudden sadness pulling at the corners of his annoyingly beautiful brown eyes. “I’m asking because I need your help,” he said, lowering his gaze. “I know you’re new, so in a lot of ways, telling you isn’t ideal, but I needyourhelp, specifically.”
“Why?” I said. Surely there were much more qualified descendants he could have chosen from. Ones with way more experience and points to their name.
“You’re not Korean, so you have a different source of time magic than me,” he said, shrugging. “If we combined our powers, we’d both be able to use half as much, and the respective amounts would be so low that neither of our agencies would be able to track us. We could move freely around the timeline, totally unseen.”
I blinked slowly as his words sank in. “You decided to come to me with this proposal that could get both of us erased…because I’m a foreigner?”
He winced. “Well, it sounds bad when you put it that way.”
The timer on my phone went off. I silenced it, then stood up and started packing up my books.
“Are you going to call Hyebin?” Yejun said, eyeing the door like he was ready to run.
I should have. But Hyebin wouldn’t get here in time, and I wasn’t about to tackle this guy in the middle of a coffee shop, so it would mean a lot of paperwork for me and he would escape regardless. “I’m going to finish packing up my bag, and then if there’s still a rogue sitting in front of me, I’m going to call Hyebin,” I said. “But maybe, if I’m alone by the time I finish packing, then I’ll have no choice butto accept that this was all a caffeine-induced hallucination which willnever happen again, and I can move on with my life.”
Yejun sighed, his expression wilting. I turned away as I put my laptop back in its case, zipped it up, and slipped it into my bag. By the time I bent down to get my charger, Kim Yejun was gone.
A 5,000 won note was sitting on the table, held down by my plate. On the napkin was a note in messy handwriting:
Cheesecake money
I crumpled up the napkin and used it to wipe the table clean, then shoved the 5,000 won in my wallet—hey, money was money. I stormed home, where hopefully no more handsome boys would pop up when I wasn’t looking. He’d lost his mind if he thought I’d help a stranger with an idea like that. It would only end one way: with me scrubbed from existence. I pictured my parents alone in their tiny apartment telling jokes late at night, happily eating their stale cereal, and not missing me at all.
If the descendants didn’t destroy me, calculus class would.
Last night, I’d been so busy trying to make sense of my class notes that I’d completely forgotten we had a workbook chapter due today. I’d downed my daily bottle of Yakult like a shot of soju and otherwise pretended Jihoon didn’t exist while I tried to do calculus at hyperspeed before Mr. Oh arrived. I glanced up at the clock and grimaced.I’m a time traveler; how am I always running out of time?I thought.
The uninvited guest at my study hour certainly hadn’t helped my concentration last night. In between equations, I found myself playing back his words in my mind.
If I never see you again, then in fifty years, the world will end.
I shook my head, wishing I could beg Hyebin for a partial brain wipe to erase the memory. The words had somehow gummed to theinside of my brain, as well as the memory of Kim Yejun’s dark eyes as he leaned across the table. The more I thought about his proposal, the more ridiculous it seemed. The idea that the fate of the world could depend on someone like me—currently scrambling to make up my calculus homework, wearing mismatched socks because I woke up late—was the most hilarious thing I’d ever heard.
The bell music played, but Mr. Oh still hadn’t arrived, so I plowed ahead with my homework. If I hadn’t been so preoccupied with calculus, it might have occurred to me that Mr. Oh never showed up late, that there must have been some reason for it.
I finished a passable attempt at my homework and dropped my pencil, slumping back against my chair with a sigh of relief just as the door at the front of the classroom slid open. Mr. Oh walked inside, and a student following closely behind him turned around and slid the door shut.
“Attention class,” Mr. Oh said, standing at the front of the classroom and gesturing to the student. As he turned around, my blood ran cold.
“We have a new student today. Everyone please welcome Kim Yejun.”
Chapter Four
There were very few times in my life that I’d considered cracking open my box of time magic for an unsanctioned redo. The moment that Kim Yejun walked into my classroom and winked at me was one of them.
I decided that after school, I would petition HQ for a do-over so I could call in sick that day, or better yet, throw myself from the third-story window. I reeled back in my seat at Yejun’s eye contact, sure I looked like Mr. Oh had just dragged roadkill in behind him. My fist clenched around my pencil, which snapped in two and clattered loudly to the floor.
“Does he knowher?” one of the girls in the back whispered unsubtly. Beside me, Jihoon had gone full statue mode, everything frozen except for his eyes, his gaze darting between me and Yejun.
What did Yejun think he was doing here?
Did he really think he was handsome enough to stop me from calling Hyebin to have him dragged off in handcuffs? The girlswhispering in the back probably would have arguedyes, but they wouldn’t be ripped from the timeline if they made a mistake.
