Page 127 of Vicious Spirits

“I got a lecture from Miyoung yesterday. Granted, less harsh. But I understand that you’re mad,” Junu said. “That you have a right to be mad,” he added.

“I’m not just mad,” Somin said. “I’m hurt. On the mountain, you said you didn’t want to leave me, but that’s just what you did this last week. You left me alone to deal with everything that happened.”

“I was scared,” Junu whispered, his eyes lowered. “I’m still scared of how much I feel for you.”

Somin found that she couldn’t maintain the high level of anger she’d been walking around with all week, but she didn’t want to let him off the hook that easily. “So you’re here now. But how can I trust you won’t get scared again and leave?”

“I’m not sure,” Junu said. “But I do want to stay.”

“Oh yeah? You’ve decided to give slumming it with the humans a try?”

“No,” Junu said with a smile. “I’ve decided that I want to really live. That I want to let myself feel the pain that I’ve held back for centuries. Because if I can feel the pain, then maybe I can also feel happiness one day. And I honestly don’t think anything makes me happier right now than you.”

Somin forced her lips into a frown. Otherwise she’d smile like a lovesick schoolgirl and she didn’t want to give Junu the satisfaction. At least not yet. She’d suffered for a week. He could suffer for another five minutes.

“So what are you proposing? We date? I’m very busy studying for the suneung exam. I wasted my whole summer break on ridiculous things like saving the world.”

He laughed, but there was appreciation in his eyes. He took her hands in his. “I’m proposing that we try our hardest to make each other happy. Not really sure what that’s going to look like. But I am sure that I love your hands. I love when they’re holding mine.” He brought her hands to his lips to kiss them. Somin’s breath caught.

“I love your eyes. I love when they’re spewing fire at me like you’ll strike me down if I do something bullheaded or selfish.” He pressed a kiss to her temple beside the corner of her eye. Somin’s heart leapt, racing so fast she thought it would burst from her chest.

“I love your lips. I love when they’re telling me when I’m wrong. When they’re telling me that you care. When they’re yelling at me.” He pressed a featherlight kiss to her lips.

“Don’t you dare say you want to possess everything I have,” Somin said, her hands squeezing his with warning.

“Never,” Junu said with a smile that lit up his handsome face so it dazzled her like the sun. “I love everything you possess. I love it because you possess it. Because I love you.”

Now Somin couldn’t hold back her smile anymore. “You definitely have a way with words,” she said. “I don’t get it. It should sound corny and horrible, but somehow you make it sound so good.”

Junu leaned forward so they were eye to eye and all she could see was the warm brown of his irises. “I’ll teach you how.”

“You better,” Somin said as their lips crushed together. She felt herself being lifted from her chair and deposited in his lap.

“You didn’t say it back,” Junu said against her lips.

“What?” Somin asked, but she couldn’t help smiling.

His mouth trailed from hers, kissed her cheek, her jaw, the sensitive lobe of her ear. Then he whispered, “Are you really going to make me ask?”

“Yes,” Somin said, though it came out as more of a breathy sigh than a command.

“Do you love me, Lee Somin?”

She turned so they were face-to-face again. Their noses touching. “I do. I love you, Jin Junu. God help us both.”

EPILOGUE

SOMIN SQUINTED AGAINSTthe sun as she stepped outside and students spilled from the school.

Junu had declared that it was a crime for them all to stay inside on such a beautiful day. And gathered everyone to bring them out for dinner before they had to come back to school to study well into the night. Such was the life of a high school senior in South Korea.

“I don’t know if I should leave,” Changwan said, glancing around nervously at the other students. Most of them were first- or second-years. Almost every third-year was still cooped up inside.

“If you’re hungry, then you can’t concentrate. It’s basic science,” Junu said, throwing an arm around Changwan’s shoulders.

Somin rolled her eyes. “I hate to admit he’s right,” she said.

Changwan and Jihoon stared at her. “Wow, I never thought I’d see the day,” Jihoon said.

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