chapter six
minho
Seungmin and I stare up at the boat bobbing in the water. It has a small body but a tall mast, sail juddering in the wind. The sun is going down, the waves crashing onto the beach are angry and crested by white.
"Good sailing weather," I mutter.
"I'm gonna lose my shit if my phone gets wet." Seungmin takes it out of his back pocket. "Never mind, it's dead anyway."
"Is it just me or does the boat look kinda flimsy?"
"You might be right. Lucky Haseong and Chan gave us a crash course in pirate-ing, right?"
We look at each other.
"You've forgotten everything, haven't you?"
"Yeah."
I look over my shoulder. Felix and his 'source' are whispering back and forth on the far side of the beach. He told us she's a vampire shipwright, her name is Kim Chanmi — and nothing else. I guess she's another item on his list of redacted information.
Felix gives her a hardy handshake and walks toward us. "It's a go, let's get this fish in the water."
We file onto the dock, untie the boat and climb in. The wind pushes us out into the surging water.
"Felix, why'd you rent a boat for this?" I ask.
"Efficiency, Min. Hoofing our way up the Americas and swimming from Newfoundland to Ireland is the fool's route to Italy. This way we only have sixteen-hundred miles to cover, and we won't look like prunes once we make it to The Boot."
"And this thing" — Seungmin flicks his hands — "will get us across the Atlantic?"
"Swiftly, you pessimists. Ms. Kim's handiwork is of the highest caliber. This beaut won't be broken by a couple puny waves."
"But will it capsize?"
"All vessels capsize, Seungmin, it's a matter of onboard competence."
"You're paying for my phone when we go under."
With the night getting darker, the wind picking up, the boat is already rocking against the waves. I curl up on the floor, hugging my bag in my arms. It still smells like home — Kokoa tried to climb in before we'd left for Charlie's house.
Felix looks me up and down, swings off his backpack and unzips it. He pulls out a rolled-up sheet of paper and gives it to me.
"What's this?"
"It's a blueprint. Thought you might wanna look at it."
I tease off the hairband holding it together. It's drawn by hand, a distantly familiar vampire scent on the thick paper. It lays out a map of Volterra on one side with an enlarged diagram of the Volturi's palazzo on the other. The building facing the street, the entrance, is the same as its neighbours, but it leads deep into the city block, ends in a large, circular room captioned 'throne room.'
Seungmin takes the seat behind me, looking at it over my shoulder. "Where'd you get this? Nobody has these blueprints, they're banned."
Felix opens his mouth.
"Never mind, redacted, I get it."
"This is where we'll meet them, the... throne room." I bite my lip, trying to picture it. "Jisung and I practiced what to say... I dunno what else there is to plan for." The boat lurches into the air — I get spritzed with salty water. "I mean, other than a sixteen-hundred mile swim."
"It's under control." The sail jerks and smacks into Felix's nose. "Ow fuck me!"
"Why didn't you say we were going somewhere farther?" Seungmin slides onto the floor with me, legs folded up to his chest. "Like the Great Wall or the Pyramids? Then we could've run to the Canadian coast and ferried it from there."
Felix is retying the sail to a cleat on the side of the boat. "The longer we're gone — or supposed to be — the more suspicious it is." He plops down between us, legs straight in front of him. "And I don't think we can afford to be any more suspicious than we already were."
I pick at a frayed hole in my knee. "Jisung was oblivious. He... didn't even look up."
"Mine are definitely suspicious," says Seungmin. "The whole thing, it was too close to a goodbye, a real goodbye. They must have noticed."
"Changbin's probably burned a hole in the wall with his eyes by now." Felix smiles a little. "The way he hates me sometimes... god, I love it."
"How do you think Chan's dealing?" I ask.
"Chan's one of the strongest people I know. He'll forgive us. 'Sides, he has Haseong to keep him steady."
Seungmin sighs. "Haseong hasn't been all that steady lately. He might be suspicious of us too. I mean, he's always suspicious of everything, but."
"Do you think it'll hurt him?" I ask. "Do you think he thinks that we don't trust him? Does he know that we know that he was doing everything he can to protect us? Am I even making sense right now?"
"Not entirely," says Felix. "I could actually use one of his lectures right now. 'Goddamnit, Felix, think rationally!'"
Seungmin sighs, rubbing his forehead. "Look, I know we're keeping everything scary unsaid, but... I don't want that to be the last time I see them. I fucking lied to them. I'm not ready to die. I want to go home after this."
Felix puts his arm around Seungmin's shoulders. "Then that's what we shall do."
I clutch my bag. This must be the farthest I've been from Jisung in years. I look down at my hands, my ring, thinking about our wedding day, his gentle eyes as I said my vows. Early mornings listening to the birds outside the window, drawing on his chest with my fingertips. His voice, his thoughts, talking and talking, blind to the days and nights passing us by.
It all builds and squeezes at the back of my throat.
"Minho, you're crying," Seungmin says.
I hide my face in my knees. "I c-can't help it."
Felix puts his arm around me too. "C'mere, crybaby. Didn't you hear me? We're going home. Remember that."
jisung
Sometimes I think I would be lucky to be a flower.
Flowers are sensitive and kind, delicate and modest — everything I love about being human without the strife and complexities. Every bud and bloom is a new life, every whither and wilt a death. In some ways, these plants are more human than I am.
Soon I've sowed, watered and fed all the seeds I have. I suppose they'll have to wait for the sun — nightfall slipped my attention and the sky is suddenly dark. I gather my tools and head toward the glowing house beyond the field.
I'm disappointed when I remember Minho won't be there. How long will a Bermuda Triangle trip take? They have a lot of land to cover before they even make it to the right coast — and then what will they do? Float around and look at the shipwrecks — that is, if the ocean doesn't sink their asses first?
I leave my stuff in the shed and go inside. Changbin is slumped on the couch, staring at a Friends rerun. His mind is silent. Entirely silent. I still have no idea how they keep me out like that. Every time I try to find out, they just — well, I don't know what they do.
At first I ignore him, but then he ignores me too and I get curious.
"Whatcha doing?" I lean over the back of the couch, try to get a glimpse of his expression. Stone-faced.
"Nothing important." He turns back to give me a once-over. "I'm sorry, do you need help searching?"
"For what?"
"Your sleeves?"
I fake-laugh and cross my arms. "Minho said I looked good."
"When was that?"
"You weren't there."
He narrows his eyes and turns back to the TV.
"Have you given this Bermuda thing any thought?" I ask. "Something feels off to me. Minho gets nervous on the water."
"Are you saying Seungmin and Felix kidnapped him?"
"No, I'm just saying it's... weird."
His lips are a line.
"Maybe they're, like, out doing something reckless? Buying something expensive?" I sigh, running a hand through my hair. "Minho's anxiety has been up and down lately. I think he misses his mom, but it... it's more too. Like, to do with the Volturi. I hate that he has to worry about shit like that."
"Am I really the person you wanna talk to about this?"
"Right, I forgot, your heart's made of stone."
He grunts and stares at the screen. I turn to the staircase.
Jisung, you should call him.
I turn back. Changbin is looking up at me, expression grave. I can hear his thoughts but I can't dive any deeper, he's still keeping it hidden away.
"What?"
Give Minho a call. See where he's at. Think about it. But it's more than a suggestion.
I nod and continue up the stairs. Changbin's face stays with me. After I shower and change, I sit on the balcony and dial Minho's cell.
It rings out. I bite my lip, fighting the panic rising in my chest. Calm down, I tell myself, he never answers his phone anyway.
I call him again, wishing my iPhone had a cord I could fidget with.
This time he picks up. "Jisungie?!" He's shouting over a deafening background noise, loud crashes and static like he's in the middle of a hurricane.
I cover one ear and get up to pace the balcony. "Minho? Where are you?"
"We're" — the line fuzzes — "boat! The signal's really bad, I don't know how" — there's a thump and a shriek — "fuck, my phone!"
I hear Haseong walk up behind me and linger in the doorway. I ignore him, trying to speak calmly into the receiver. I should have gone with those three. Even with Seungmin there, Felix and Minho always manage to get into the stupidest situations.
"My love, come back if it's not safe."
"What?!"
"Come back if it's not safe!"
"No, I'm having fun! Don't worry about me, honestly, I'm— no, Seungmin, the sail's rip—"
The call disconnects. I stare at the screen. I really, really want to call him again.
"Leave it," Haseong tells me. I forgot he was there. "It's no use."
I swallow. "I'm just worried, it's nothing."
"They're not in Bermuda, they're going northeast."
Haseong shows me his phone. It's a map of the Atlantic ocean. The red dot is miles off the east coast.
I gawk. "They — w-what — how did — but — are you—?"
"I planted a tracker in the sole of Seungmin's shoe."
"Christ, you're deranged! What the hell are they doing? Why are they in the Atlantic?"
"That's what I don't know. But someone in the family does. This has been going on for a while, Jisung, I've kept my thumb on the pulse but Felix is good at keeping secrets."
"Fucking Felix." I feel like throttling him already. "What do we do now?"
"Now we have a family assembly. Someone'll give the game away." There's a glint in his eye, like he's half-enjoying this. "I'll make sure of it."