I click my locker shut and check my phone. I already have a text from Sehun.
Sehun: With Kang. Be there in a min.
Me: I've actually got some things to take care of. Don't wait for me to drive home.
I shove my phone into my pocket and head down the hall toward the sports fields. I push the back door of the school open and almost walk into Jisoo.
"Hey, Suzy." She readjusts her navy Dior purse on her cashmere-covered shoulder.
I stop short. She never talks to me.
"Sorry I almost hit you with the door," I say.
Jisoo waves off my apology. "Actually, I wanted to ask you something. . . Do you know if Sehun is dating anyone?"
I blink at her. "Excuse me?"
"It's just you're always with him," she says, like it's a bad thing. "I figured you would know."
I honestly have no idea how to respond to her. Is she asking me to not hang out with my best friend so she can flirt with him or something? I decide to shift the focus back to her. "What about you and Damon?"
"Over it." Jisoo twirls a gold bracelet around her wrist. "So if you could just—"
"Go away, Jisoo," Wendy says from behind me. "Suzy isn't going to do jack for you."
Jisoo narrows her eyes.
Wendy grabs my arm and pulls me into the field. The chilly breeze carries the scent of freshly cut grass and the promise of spring.
I look at Wendy as we walk. "So you and Jisoo are close, huh?"
Wendy shrugs. "Yeah, we have that thing going where we spend so much time together that we've started to look alike."
I laugh.
Seulgi and Mary stand behind the bleachers, black gothic silhouettes against the tree line. Seulgi smiles, and her delicate face lights up.
"So what's all the mystery about?" I ask as we approach them. My words sound disjointed. The only times we've spoken, we've had the type of conversation where one person starts to talk, then realizes they don't know what to say, and the whole conversation dissolves.
For a second everyone is still; even the breeze stops blowing.
Hyeri breaks the silence. "We need you to talk to the dead."
I frown.
"Hyeri!" Seulgi says, and Wendy gives Hyeri the stink-eye. "We're not asking you to come see if our attic is haunted. Hyeri spoke too soon. The thing is, Wendy read her bones yesterday for the first time since Yo—"
I put my hand up before she can finish Yoomi's name. "Don't. You said you wouldn't. And truthfully, I just want to forget all about magic."
"Well, tough," Wendy says. "Because you were in my reading, and so you're part of the message I got, whether you like it or not. Chin up, chest out. It's time."
Is she criticizing me for not bouncing back fast enough from almost being hanged by my stepmother? "It's not time. I'm absolutely fine living the rest of my life never being in a situation like that again." I back away from them by two steps.
"So you're saying you won't listen to what we have to say, even if we need you to help prevent something bad from happening?" Wendy asks.
I hesitate for a half second and then shake my head.
"Wait, Sooji," Seulgi says. "We know this is hard for you, but none of us are having an easy time recovering from what your stepmother did. We were right there with you through that whole awful thing, and we almost died, too."
There it is. The truth. "You said we weren't going to talk about Y . . ." Her name sticks in my throat.
Hyeri tugs at her hair. "Guys, she's not ready yet."
"Seriously, Hyeri?" Wendy says, like she can't believe Hyeri is still talking.
Seulgi closes the space between us with a few graceful steps, blocking my view of Hyeri and Wendy. She's so gentle and confident that it makes it impossible to brush her off without feeling guilty.
Seulgi looks at me now like she just wants me to understand her. "There isn't a morning I wake up and look in the mirror that I don't still see the faint red mark from the rope on my neck. We all think about it. We all have nightmares." Her voice is calm. "We don't need to talk about that night specifically. But we need to talk to you about this because it's important. You trusted me once; trust me again."
I want to walk away, but I can't seem to break eye contact with her. I exhale audibly. Please don't let me regret this. "Okay, Wendy. I'm listening."
Wendy gestures toward the woods. "After you."
We walk through the trees until we're hidden from any stragglers hanging out in the back fields. Hyeri pulls out a black wool blanket and spreads it on the ground.
I reluctantly sit down next to them. The blanket looks like the same one we used when I did the clarity spell with them.
Wendy pulls her hair into a ponytail. "Despite what you may think, Suzy, none of us are ready to deal with the outside world right now. Personally, I'd like to spend the rest of the year with nothing more serious to think about than what I'm going to wear to the Spring Fling. And if I never hear the dopes in our school gossiping about the shreds of misinformation they have from that night, it will be too soon." She twirls a leaf between her fingers. "We haven't even attempted magic. The only reason I read my bones yesterday was to convince Hyeri that all threats had passed. You have no idea how many times in a row she can ask the same damn question."
Hyeri rests her head theatrically on Wendy's shoulder. "You would be lost without me and you know it."
"Anyway," Wendy says, pushing Hyeri off her shoulder. "My reading told me exactly nothing about our previous situation. Instead, I—"
"Found out something bizarre," Hyeri says. Seulgi and Wendy both look at her. "What? We don't know for sure that it's something bad."
"The bones said you need to join our circle," Wendy says. "And don't get your back up thinking we're just using you to be the fourth person for a spell or something. I can see the wheels turning in that brain of yours."
An image of Soojung's empty chair flashes through my thoughts. Nothing good comes from magic.
"Wendy's reading also said that someone's coming." Seulgi makes eye contact with me, gauging my response as she speaks. "And we got the message that if we don't work together, we'll be like the wanderer. Darkness will be over us, and our rest will be a stone."
Wendy tosses the leaf. "No more information than that. No matter how many times I cast them, they came up with the same riddle."
I press my fingers into my forehead. "Please tell me that means we'll be traveling and not that one of us is going to die. 'Rest will be a stone' sounds morbid as hell."
Seulgi tightens her lips. "We don't know. As Wendy said, we haven't done a reading since the fall. We don't know what we may have missed." She pauses. "Have you seen anything odd, anything at all?"
I make eye contact with her. "Like what?"
"Like spirits," she says, and I look away. Damn Seulgi's ability to read people.
I stand up. I can't do this. I've only recently started sleeping well again. "I'm sorry, but I can't be part of your circle. If you want to go to the movies or something, cool. But if it's about magic, just . . . no."
I walk away before they can respond.