Save the MVSewolferry
Final shift
I looked up at Yejun for some indication that he was joking, but he was grinning like he expected a compliment.
“What the hell is this?” I said.
“It’s how we’re going to save the world!” Yejun said, leaning closer.
“Withcandy corn?” I glanced over my shoulder as the next shuttle bus pulled in, seriously considering just taking the cheesecake and going home.
“The candy corn isn’t the point,” Yejun said, shoulders drooping as it seemed to dawn on him that I didn’t share his excitement. “These are our goals. We’re going to strategically undo some events that are key to this timeline’s stability. Think of it like… this timeline is abig ship with a bunch of anchors cast into the sea. We’re going to pull up the heaviest ones.”
“And how do you even know what these ‘anchors’ are?”
He shrugged. “It’s how they made Timeline Beta, but in reverse. I might have looked at some… sensitive paperwork before I went rogue… Which might have been the reason I got chased out in the first place.”
“So you’re not very sneaky, is what you’re telling me?” I said, raising an eyebrow.
“Hey, I’m still alive, aren’t I?” he said.
I briefly contemplated throwing myself off the tower. What had I gotten myself into? Surely the way to get my sister back couldn’t depend on dung beetles.
But then again, this was pretty consistent with the butterfly principle—never solve a problem at its source. If a ladybug could cause a tsunami, maybe a dung beetle could save my sister.
“And what is ‘final shift’ supposed to mean?” I said.
The grin slid off Yejun’s face. “Once we pull up all the anchors,” he said, “we make one last change, and Timeline Alpha just sort of… clicks into place.”
“And that change would be…”
“Hong Gildong started the entire timeline separation process,” Yejun said, lowering his voice. “He was the first domino in creating Timeline Beta, which means, for us—”
“He’s the last?”
“Best for last!” Yejun said, nodding.
I imagined Hong Gildong on the ground, the look of fear in his eyes as I pried open his mouth and shoved his yeouiju down his throat…
I supposed that I could put up with Yejun for a while if that was the payoff.
“Okay,” I said. “How do we get candy corn into Korea?”
Yejun patted his bulky backpack. “I came prepared,” he said. “But for that, we need to go inside.”
He picked up the tray and dumped the strawberry milk into the grass, then shook the tray out and crammed it back into his bag.
I followed him to the main entrance, where he tried to hold the door for me, but I shoved him through first.
“You can buy me cheesecake, but don’t hold doors for me,” I said. I didn’t want us looking like a couple. Maybe people could think I was his disgruntled foreign cousin.
“Seems a bit arbitrary, but okay,” he said. “Any other rules I should know about?”
“I’ll let you know when you break them.”
But he only smiled at this too, like he thought I was joking. I was glad at least one of us found this whole situation amusing, rather than the scariest and possibly worst decision I’d ever made. I contemplated making a run for it with my cheesecake—I hadn’t technically broken protocol yet.
We approached the main desk, where he loudly asked the woman for two tickets to the top of the tower. I didn’t want him to pay for me, but the only thing I hated more than him in that moment was the idea of causing a scene by arguing with him. He wasn’t doing it to be generous—he knew it would annoy me.
