Sehun and I walk up my driveway as the last bit of light leaves the horizon. Under the overhang of the doorway stands Joohyuk. Did he find something?
"I'm gonna go over to Kang's house in a bit. He's having a couple of people over. You should come," says Sehun.
I stop a few feet away from the porch.
"She will be otherwise engaged," says Joohyuk.
I glare at him before I catch myself. "Actually, I need to get up early in the morning. We're driving to Suwoon to see my dad."
Sehun moves closer to me. "I'll text you tomorrow, then."
"Say farewell or I will for you," says Joohyuk.
In any other circumstance I would tell him where to stick it, but I just made up with Sehun and I don't need to look crazy again.
"Sounds good," I say, and turn toward my door just as Sehun leans forward.
Sehun lingers for a few seconds before turning toward his house. I push my door open and close it before Joohyuk can follow. It doesn't matter, though, because he walks right through the wall.
"What the hell, Joohyuk? Are you trying to embarrass me?"
"Who's Joohyuk?" Yoomi asks, entering the foyer. She's in a particularly good mood.
I look down at the mail on the table, trying to act casual.
"You succeed artfully in embarrassment without any help from me," Joohyuk says.
"No one important," I say to Yoomi. "A boy from school."
Yoomi's eyebrow furrows together. "Then why were you talking to him in our foyer."
"I wasn't. I was talking to myself."
"Right." Her look of worry turns to a smile. "Are you hungry? I thought we might go out for a change. Celebrate your father's transfer."
"No, thanks. I grabbed some food with Sehun on my way home."
"Suit yourself," she says.
I walk past her and up to my room, Joohyuk by my side.
"Don't do that!" I whisper, and close my bedroom door behind me.
"I do not enjoy waiting," he says flatly, his wavy hair brushing against his forehead.
"Then why didn't you come find me?"
"I have no intention of searching all of Manyeo for you."
I scowl. "I was trying to find the hanging location. Which I could've just asked you for and saved myself a lot of trouble, if you didn't disappear last night."
"It is behind the pharmacy."
"I know!" I snap, although I wasn't convinced until he confirmed it.
"I have made sense of the death records."
"Really?" Curiosity replaces my annoyance.
He picks up a few sheets of paper from my window seat and sit down. The handwriting on them is old-fashioned. I sit down next to him, and for just a second I swear he smells like freshly cut grass.
"At first glance, the clustering of death tolls follows no discernible pattern."
He speaks with his old world accent. His eyelashes are long, longer than mine, and his eyebrows are perfectly shaped. It seems unfair that they're on a guy, especially a dead one.
"I looked for medical causes, but there was nothing out of the ordinary during the years your grandmother dog-eared. In fact, the rest of Manyeo's population was birthing and dying at a perfectly consistent rate."
"Is there something different about the Witch Trials' families?"
"Kindly do not interrupt me," he says with anything but kindness.
Kindly I will smack you in your perfect face.
"After a few false starts, I mapped out the approximate population size of the Witch Trials' families. My efforts showed that there was a significant increase in the number of
lineages living in Manyeo around years with more deaths. And, more important, there were members from each of the major families in Manyeo itself. In years when there were not, everything was status quo."
"So it has to do with the number of lineages in Manyeo? I'm not following."
"The deaths appear to start when critical mass is reached," he says.
"Joohyuk! What does that mean?"
"Stay in school, Sooji."
You arrogant son of a bitch.
"At least one lineage from each major family must be present in Manyeo. The moment they are, the deaths start."
My thoughts go straight to my dad. "What about now? Are there lineages from all families in Manyeo?"
"Yes."
My stomach drops. "Are you sure?"
"By the proportionately largest number to date."
My mouth is dry. I know the answer to this question, but like a moth drawn to light, I feel compelled to ask it. "Have there been any lineage or descendant deaths?"
"Seven. All since you moved here. You were the only missing lineage."
And Kai's great-grandfather was one of them. "Seven? Maybe it's over?"
"Unlikely, if you compare the numbers to previous years. If I had to guess, I would say there are a lot more coming."
It's hard to breathe. I look at his papers to make sense of the figures he's written out. But when I see the death count at twenty-five for a previous year. I wish I hadn't. Please don't let my dad be one of them. Please.
"So there is definitely a curse. You see that, right? I start pacing. We actually lived to appa closer to Manyeo from Seoul. Does that make it worse? Can we transfer him back?
"I do not know."
"But you admit that it's more than a coincidence?"
"It is unusual, yes."
"How are you so calm?"
"I am already dead."