Page 9 of Rules for Rule Breaking
“I’m so confused,” Bobby said.
For once, Winter Park agreed with Bobby Bae.
“Me too. Just drive. We need to talk.”
Winter buckled up, and Bobby pulled out of the parking lot to get on the main road toward her house. They were quiet and awkward next to each other, upset that something had happened that they were supposed to bond over. They didn’t want to bond. That was Bobby’s entire reason for going to see Winter in the first place.
The sky was pink and red as the sun finally set behind the trees. It gave a little reprieve from the heat, but it was still excruciatingly hot. Winter felt like her skin was boiling, which was worsened by all the mosquito bites she couldn’t help but scratch.
“Can you please stop that?” Bobby asked, his face pinched and judgmental.
Winter scratched harder. “No, I’m so itchy, and it’s all your fault.”
“Myfault? You’re the one who asked me to go outside.”
“I know. Shut up.” She made an effort to stop scratching but quickly gave in. She spotted the Village Park to their right. She pointed to the parking lot and said, “Stop there.”
“The park is closed. We’ll get in trouble.”
“It’s open for another fifteen minutes. We just need to stop somewhere for a second so we can discuss the logistics of this trip. Halmeoni is right; we’ve never done a bad thing a day in our lives.”
Bobby looked offended. “Speak for yourself.”
Winter gave him a side-eye. “You have never broken a rule, Bobby Bae.” She pointed at the speedometer. “Look, you’re going exactly the speed limit. There’s literally nobody around.”
Bobby lightly tapped the gas and went one mile per hour over the limit. “There.”
Winter put her hands up in false surrender. “I’m mistaken, you’re such a badass. Now pull into the park.” She added apleasewhen Bobby didn’t immediately do it.
Bobby pulled into the parking lot and cut the engine. They were right in front of the basketball courts and the picnic area. The park was completely empty, but there was evidence that people had just left, probably because of the mosquitoes. The trash cans were stuffed to the brims with the remnants of picnics and cookouts.
Winter often walked past this park to admire the stars at night. Since she was a little girl, she dressed up as famous astronauts instead of princesses. When she was a kid, her uncle gave her a gigantic LEGO castle set. She used it to make a life-sized replica of the Mars rover instead, which sparked her lifelong love affair with robotics. There was something almost spiritual about the vastness and unknowability of space. It was the perfect marriage between science and poetry, messiness and order, everything and nothing at all. Winter delighted in knowing that she was a small part of that chemistry.
She looked up at the sky. It was too cloudy for stars.Figures,she thought to herself. That had to have been Bobby Bae’s fault too.
“What kind of rules are you trying to break?” Bobby asked. “I’ll tell you for certain I am not going to start some kind of underground gambling ring like Halmeoni.” He flipped his hair out of his eyes. “You always try to one-up me. You’re probably going to go straight for, like, a Ponzi scheme or something.”
Winter eyed Bobby and then looked out over the deserted park with miles and miles of woods. “Or maybe I’ll plan the perfect murder.”
“You and your mysteries.”
Winter ignored him. “Maybe we don’t have to commit felonies. We could just do typical rebellious teenager stuff. We could maybe go to a college party or something. I’ve never drank before. Have you?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Let’s do that, I guess. And... I don’t know what else.”
Winter knew that her uncle had given Bobby a shot of soju at one of their shared family dinners once, and she appreciated that he didn’t bring it up.
Bobby was thoughtful for a moment. “Well, if we do this trip together—and I’m not saying that I’ve invited you yet, but if we do—why don’t we do stuff we’ve always wanted to do? They don’t really have to be bad or illegal things.”
Winter’s ears perked up. “Like a bucket list?”
“Yeah, I mean, is there anything you never got a chance to do?”
Winter thought for a moment. “I’ve always wanted to play chess outside, like on one of those chess tables that are in parks sometimes. That seems really relaxing.”
“Like Magneto and Professor X?”
