The Passengers (Book #2)

𝔍𝔬𝔬𝔥𝔶𝔲𝔨 𝔚𝔞𝔦𝔱𝔰 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔐𝔢

I rub my eyes as I walk toward homeroom. These nights of Joohyuk waking me up every ten minutes are catching up with me big-time.

I grab the homeroom door, and someone touches my elbow. I whip around.

Damon smiles. "Whoa. Sorry. I didn't mean ta scare ya."

"No worries. I'm just extra tired this morning. Makes I jumpy," I say.

He scans my face. "I can see that. What'd ya pull an all nightah?"

"Something like that," I say.

"It's only midweek. You keep goin' like that and you'll never make it to the dance—excuse me, Spring Fling," he says, like he finds the whole thing ridiculous.

"Aren't you on the dance committee? Shouldn't you be excited?"

"It's about plannin' an event with Jennie and Jisoo?" He laughs.

"It's just a means to an end. Accordin' to me parents, I don't have enough extracurriculars—leadership skill? I don't know—to get into a good university, so I went abroad."

I attempt a smile, but my face just isn't up to it. I point at the door. "You're going in—"

"Actually . . . hold up." He glances over his shoulders and pulls me away from the classroom.

"What's going on?"

"I don't know. I'm 'aving an altruistic blip or somethin'." He lowers his voice. "So 'ere's the deal. Jisoo's family and Jennie's family went out to dinner together last night, and I overhear the two of  'em whisperin' about ya."

My shoulders tense. "How so?"

"Honestly, I didn't hear much. But it sounded like they had some big plan. Jisoo kept sayin' she couldn't wait for tomorrow. Today, technically. I just felt bad not givin' you a heads-up."

Big plan? My stomach flips. "Thanks for the warning."

"No problem. And get some sleep," he says, and walks past me into homeroom.

I take a breath and push the door open. The girls are already there. I sit down next to Seulgi and tell them everything Damon said.

"It's the thirteenth," Hyeri says.

"Jeez, Hyeri, you need to stop saying that every two seconds. You're gonna give me a twitch," Wendy says. "We don't even know for sure if it means anything other than the typical Jisoo gossip."

Seulgi looks at me. "When Jisoo goes on the attack, she's usually spreading a rumor—some part of which is true. That's how she gets people to believe it. But then again, we shouldn't be underestimating anyone right now. Especially not her and Jennie."

"If it's gossip, that's fine. Gossip I can handle," I say.

The bell rings.

"Settle down, everyone," Mrs. Huang says.

Jennie walks past my desk, makes eye contact, and winks.

Not good.

The class quiets, and Mrs. Huang launches into her typical morning speech about homework and study habits.

I lean my head on my hand, and my eyelids droop.

"Sooji," Joohyuk says, and I sit up so fast that I smack my elbow into my desk.

Mrs. Huang gives me a warning look.

"I have just come from the records room," Joohyuk says.

One look at his face tells me I'm not going to like whatever he has to say. He never visits me in school.

"I did, in fact, locate the digital scans of those newspapers. However, the ones we want were missing."

Damn. I pull out my notebook and open it to a fresh page. I write: Is there a backup?

"Also missing. What is odd, though, is that the scans were on a machine in a rarely frequented storage room. Everything was covered in a layer of dust, except that one hard drive. I believe that is what it is called."

Me: Someone rushed over there in the middle of the night?

Elijah waits for me to finish writing. "Someone alive. Spirits do not leave fingerprints."

Me: Whatever was in those newspapers must have been revealing. Do you think there was a name we know in those articles? Someone we would immediately recognize?

"Likely. I will also check neighboring towns to see if any of their records might be helpful."

Me: And I'll ask the girls if there are any other ways to get old Manyeo newspaper.

He hesitates. "Be cautious, Sooji. I do not know what we may have triggered with our visit last night."

Me: I'm always careful.

He raises an eyebrow and blinks out.

I write down our entire conversation and pass it to Seulgi, who reads it and passes on to Wendy and then Hyeri.

The bell rings.

"The town hall is really the only place to get local newspaper. Some of the historical societies around here keep their own records, but mostly on the Witch Trials. I'd be surprised if they had much on the Titanic—since there isn't a lot of important Koreans and Asians on board." Hyeri says, and we all stand up.

"If our grandmothers were still alive, they might know where we could start," Seulgi says.

We make our way to the hall.

"The thing that worried me," I say in a hushed voice, "is that someone went to the town hall in the middle of the night, that person has to be here in Manyeo."

"I was thinking the same thing," Wendy says. "And no one would do that unless they thought we'd recognize their name in the paper. I think we just confirmed that we must know the person who's doing these things." We all look around the hall suspiciously. "Everyone be extra careful today. And as soon as we're out of here, we'll figure out how to help Joohyuk get more information."

The girls and I nod and shared a worried look. We turn our separate ways down the hall.

I open the door to Wang's World History class.

"Ah, Miss Bae. I will see you during my office hours after school today," Mr. Wang says.

"Actually, I can't today. I have—"

"That's what you said yesterday. But unfortunately, I'm going to need you to make time today. Thursday and Friday are impossible for me because of Spring Fling preparations."

"Is there any way we can do it next week?" I ask.

"Not if you plan on passing this class," he says.