I closed my eyes, my hands tense on the railing, and took a deep breath. I could smell rain, and gas, and echoes of fried food, and dew on the grass below, and wetness on stones, and so many other pieces of home that I would miss if this really was my last life.
I counted down the moments in my head.
Three… two… one…
My hands tightened on the railing, then released. I opened my eyes and checked my watch.
3:00A.M.
I let out a breath. A breeze tore across the street, jingling the ladybug key chain hanging from the zipper of my backpack. I was now the second Mina Yang, the second ladybug, flying undetected. All that was left to do was intercept Hana on the day I moved to Seoul.
I clutched my two sources of time magic tight in my hands, let them warm my bones, and wiped my mind of everything but a girlbathed in sunlight, her hand reaching out for mine, and the time and date when we would finally meet.
I arrived two minutes before Hana.
It was enough time for me to hurry to my apartment and beat Hana to the scene, and not so much time as to blow through my fifty-nine-minute limit before the timeline refreshed once more. I walked in a daze down the street, unbothered by the crush of summer humidity or sunlight blaring around the skyscrapers because I was so close to finally seeing Hana.
Even though I’d since lived in this apartment and city for over a month, the day still felt exactly like the first day I’d arrived—my fingertips prickled with all the fear and excitement of a new beginning, a new life where anything at all could happen. I knew, from the first moment I saw the glimmer of Bulgwang stream under this same burning sun, that this place was different from all the others.
I reached the officetel where my parents and I would arrive in only a few minutes. I hurried up the cool marble stairs to the front door of our apartment, where the lock was set to 0000 before we picked up our keys. I punched in the code and slipped into the apartment, into my room that was still only a bed frame, mattress, and empty nightstand, everything covered in shadows and dust.
I’m here, Hana, I thought, every muscle tight as if bracing for impact. Any moment now, she was going to walk through the door and I would finally know my sister’s face.
I was too nervous to sit on the bed, so I rocked back and forth on my heels, tugging at my backpack straps. What was I supposed say to Hana when I finally saw her?I missed you?But that was technically a lie—you can’t miss someone you didn’t know.I love you?That felt even crazier, because how can you love someone you’venever actually met? But I felt the truth of it deep in my bones, in a way that time magic couldn’t explain.
The front door unlatched.
“Take your shoes off first!” my mom’s voice called from the hallway.
For a moment, I could only stand in the middle of the room and frown at the closed bedroom door. The panicked whirring in my mind fell silent.
This is all wrong.
I remembered this moment from the day we’d moved in. Next, my dad would say—
“Well, I can’t squat down like I used to! You’re gonna have to wait while I untie my shoes.”
I heard my own impatient sigh in the hallway, the sound of me rolling a suitcase against the wall and sitting down on it.
This isn’t how it’s supposed to happen.
The day I’d moved in, the note from Hana had been waiting for me on my bed. Any moment, the past Mina was going to walk in, and there wasn’t going to be anything here but me.
I messed around with the timeline too much, I thought, dread washing through me in a cold wave. I thought of all the silly, pointless missions I’d gone on with Yejun, the paradoxes that ripped holes in the timeline. I must have caused a butterfly effect that changed this moment, and now Hana wasn’t going to show up. Or worse—what if Hana had finally gotten caught? If she didn’t come now, everything would change.
That note was the first time that Hana had turned from a vague sense of loss into something tangible, someone I could believe in. What would my life in Korea look like if I didn’t even know Hana existed? How many times had I taken out her note for strength?
Maybe I wouldn’t have agreed with Yejun’s plan if I didn’t believe in Hana, but surely the descendants would have found another wayto test me. If I never found the note, I might walk unknowingly into my own execution.
I set down my backpack and dug through it as quietly as possible until I found my English notebook, then ripped out a page. I winced at the sound, glancing at the door, but my dad was still taking his time untying his shoes.
I bit the cap off a pen and copied over Hana’s note as quickly as I could. I had every word memorized, so I scrawled it all down without hesitation. Hana would just have to forgive me for interfering in the timeline and impersonating her.It’s for a good cause, I thought, moving to set the note down on my bed. I couldn’t make a perfect copy, but this would be good enough.
I hesitated just before I set it down on my pillow.
It took me a moment to realize what had changed. I’d grown so used to the constant ache behind my eyes that when it suddenly lifted, I felt strangely light.My mom was wrong, it wasn’t a timesickness headache, I thought. It couldn’t be, because that would mean I’d completed a time loop, when all I’d done was interfere.
I drew my hand back, staring at the note on my pillow, the torn edge of the paper that I’d ripped too far down the right side. But that was okay, Hana’s note looked similar enough.
