I frowned as he led us down a side street. This was a residential area, with no sushi restaurants that I was aware of.
“Are you assuming I like sushi because I’m Japanese?”
“I’m assuming you like sushi because everyone likes sushi, and you need to occasionally eat something besides cheesecake,” he said. “There’s a sushi place in 2010 near the next adjustment—which I wastryingto tell you about today. Would that work?”
I crossed my arms, thinking it over. I didn’t want him to get used to smoothing over his flaws with food.
But… my mom always said that there was very little that some good sushi couldn’t fix. If I had to travel with Yejun anyway, I might as well get a meal out of it.
“It better be good,” I said. “You’re talking to someone who lived in Japan. I know good sushi.”
“Oh, this is good, believe me,” Yejun said as he grinned and walked faster down the street. He stopped suddenly, looked around, then yanked me down behind a parked car.
“No cameras here,” he said, rubbing his hands together. “Okay, 2010, April 11, 14:45:11.” Then he held his hand out, fingertips already sparkling blue.
I hesitated, remembering the last time we’d shared magic. For a brief moment, I felt like I’d seen Yejun’s soul. Did that mean he had seen mine as well? I pictured his soft brown eyes unmaking me, tearing away every part of the human mask that I wore until there was nothing but time magic and dragon fire that no one else had ever seen.
Though I didn’t reach out, ribbons of his magic unfurled from his fingertips, tracing gently across my cheeks. At their touch, I feltlike sunlight bloomed inside me, my vision sparkling gold at the edges—that same feeling of weightlessness as before.
Slowly, I set my hand in his.
Our magic knit together instantly this time, the indigo light brightening, still tangled with both light blue and deep purple.
Like northern lights.
I jolted, because the thought wasn’t mine. It echoed through me in Yejun’s voice. I looked up at the blue light in his eyes.
Our magic together, he said.It looks like the northern lights.
I’ve never seen them, I thought. I didn’t know if Yejun could hear me, but he smiled as if he could.
No need, he said.This is better.
“You’re right,” I said—two words I never thought I would say to Kim Yejun, of all people. I put a piece of salmon egg sushi in my mouth and took my time before swallowing, ignoring Yejun’s look of triumph. “This is the best sushi I’ve had outside of Japan.”
“The sushi chef is from Ishikawa,” Yejun said, stealing a piece off my plate. “You should know that I wouldn’t joke about something as serious as sushi with a Japanese girl.”
I groaned and leaned back in my seat. “I think I might explode if I keep eating, but there’s no way I’m throwing any of this away.”
“It would be a great sacrifice, but I think I could help you with that,” Yejun said, reaching forward to snatch another piece.
I smacked his chopsticks away with my own. “Get your own sushi,” I said.
“I’m paying,” he said, pouting.
“I thought this was a gift?”
“Ithought we lived in a civilized society where people shared.”
“You thought incorrectly,” I said.
Yejun laughed. “Fine, I should know better than to get betweena girl and her sushi,” he said, pushing his plate toward me. “Save a piece of salmon, though. We need to feed it to a pigeon.”
“For the adjustment?”
“No, for my amusement,” he said. “Yes, for the adjustment. You think I would waste salmon this good?”
“That’s the only reason I would give up a piece of this to anyone,” I said, taking a sip of water. “Are you going to tell me what you needed to talk about?”
