Chapter 17
Much to Grace’s distress, it was overcast after school, even though the weather report had said there wouldn’t be any rain. Usually, the Friday night opening of the winter carnival was the busiest, but if it rained, that would severely affect attendance.
As thunder rolled overhead, Grace pulled up in front of her house.
“It rains a lot here,” Hae observed as he climbed into the car.
“Sometimes,” Grace said. “But this is a lot for this time of year.” She adjusted the rearview mirror before backing out of the drive again.
“If I had my full powers, I could brighten the sun to push back the clouds.”
“Really?”
“Well, maybe not completely. Now, if I had Yonggwanggeom, I could show you some cool stuff. It enhanced my powers ten-fold.”
“Your sword?” Grace asked. “Do you think it could still enhance them when they’re being, well, wonky?”
“When I had Yonggwanggeom, anything was possible.” Hae grinned, and her heart stumbled a bit. Why had she done such a good job making him so attractive?
“What will you do when you get it all back?” Grace asked, trying to ignore her own reaction to him.
“What back?”
“Your powers. Your home. All of it.”
“Oh, I’m not sure. I guess I haven’t thought that far.” Hae’s grin faded, and he fell silent.
For some reason, Grace felt bad about bringing it up. She hadn’t meant to kill his good mood. The quiet stretched between them, only punctuated by the periodic reminders from the GPS.
“Why don’t you follow the lady giving you directions?” Hae asked when the GPS chimed a route change again.
“What?”
“You’re not following all the directions, and every time you take a different road, it makes that beeping noise.”
“Yeah, it’s recalculating.”
“Why do you even have it on if you are not going to listen to it?”
“Just in case.”
“Of what? In case brand-new roads get built in the next ten minutes?”
“Who’s driving this car? You or me?”
“I’ll drive if you’d like,” Hae offered, reaching to unlatch his seat belt as if calling her bluff.
“I think the person with an actual license should keep driving,” she said quickly.
Hae grinned and leaned back again. “Just saying it’s odd that you insist on using that little robot lady to tell you where to go, when you could just do it yourself.”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I like to be thorough. What if there’s a road closure? The app would know about it and tell me. I like to be informed. That’s not a crime.” Grace hated that she felt a need to explain herself.
“You don’t need to keep doubting yourself.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means you’re so worried about not being perfect that you don’t trust your own brain to know what it knows.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Grace said.
Hae’s only response was a shrug.
“You don’t know anything about me.”
“I knew you were special.”
“Stop saying that.” It made Grace feel uncomfortable that he kept insisting on it.
“You made the world believe in me again.” Hae closed his eyes with a small satisfied smile pulling at his lips. “That’s special.”