If Yejun saw me with Jihoon, he would be upset all over again, and snacks probably wouldn’t make up for it a second time.
I watched helplessly as Jihoon took out the bracelet. This was the part where I was supposed to fall into the stream and ruin the moment. If it happened fast, maybe Yejun would miss it.
But instead, the other Mina smiled as she took the bracelet, slipping it on her wrist.
That wasn’t right.
Something must have changed. Yejun said he was good at adjustments, but maybe he’d made a mistake and I’d changed this day. Would I actually complete the mission this time around, just in time for Yejun to come out of CU and see me kissing Jihoon?
The wind blew my hair back as I glared at my past self. I remembered how, back then, using Jihoon had felt like a game.
One day, you’ll regret this, Mina, I thought.Don’t do it.
But the other Mina couldn’t hear my thoughts, so she only smiled her same sharp lie of a smile and leaned closer to Jihoon.
Then suddenly, her gaze locked with mine.
She froze, the smile dropping off her face.
I tensed up, wondering if I should run into CU, but it was already too late—I’d been seen.
The other Mina was talking frantically to Jihoon now, gaze darting back and forth between me and him. Just as Jihoon started to turn around, Mina grabbed him and both of them toppled into the river.
I let out a sharp laugh, my shoulders relaxing.
There, I thought.I fixed it.
The other Mina made a quick exit, just as she was supposed to, and stormed over to me.
“What?” she said, crossing her arms.
Something about the way she spoke—the resigned tiredness of that single word—felt so familiar.
Here I was, standing in front of my past self, an open bottle of banana milk on the table beside me. All that was missing was…
The confetti, I thought. The confetti that Yejun had showered over me when I’d passed my calculus test. The confetti that was still in the pocket of the backpack I was currently wearing.
I was the organic Echo, just as Yejun had thought.
I dropped my gaze to past-Mina’s shoes—at the time, I’d wondered what could have possessed me to pour banana milk all over them, but now I understood.
On the day I’d met Jihoon, he’d complimented my shoes—these shoes—and spilled orange juice on me. I’d found his apology so funny that we’d become friends and I’d decided that using him for my infiltration mission would be easy.
I wished it had never happened.
I picked up the banana milk, just as I was always destined to, and poured it over her—not my—shoes.
“Sorry,” I said, even though I wasn’t sorry at all.
“Is that all?” the other Mina said. “Any more infiltration missions you want to ruin for me while you’re here?”
No, I thought,though I do need to make a quick escape before Yejun sees you.
I reached into the front pocket of my backpack, grabbed a handful of confetti, and tossed it into the other Mina’s face.
She sputtered as one of the tiny pieces got in her eye. “Are you serious?” she said.
I didn’t stick around to see what happened next.
