Chapter 18
“Remember what I told you,” Grace said as they walked to the front of the school.
They could see where the carnival had been set up in the practice fields.
The center was taken up by the giant Ferris wheel, with the larger rides at the back of the field and the food and game booths peppering the front.
The air was already thick with the smell of fried dough and corn dogs, and Grace could practically feel her arteries clogging.
“Don’t talk to anyone if you can help it.
And if someone asks, you’re a friend of the family from Seoul.
” She studied his outfit, joggers and a sweatshirt her father never wore.
Hae still insisted on wearing his uniform blazer over it all.
And the pants were a tad short, as he was a couple of inches taller than her dad.
But he still somehow managed to pull it all off.
“I hate lying.” Hae winced.
“Then just say you’re visiting. That’s kind of true, right?”
“I suppose.” Hae pursed his lips, but Grace didn’t have time to worry about whether he liked her rules or not.
“And please don’t use your powers, okay?”
“It would take too much effort anyway.” Hae scowled at the confession.
At the sound of someone calling her, Grace turned, excuses ready to explain Hae’s presence away. But she let out a breath of relief when she saw it was just Zoe.
They jogged over. “Hey, Gracie.” Then they glanced at Hae, brow lifting in surprise. “Oh, hi, Gracie’s stalker.”
“Stalker?” Hae sounded offended.
“Ah, about that,” Grace said slowly, wondering how she’d explain this. “It’s actually a complicated situation.”
“Oh, I love complicated.” Zoe grinned. “Do tell.”
Grace hesitated only a second. This was Zoe. Her best friend, the holder of almost all of her secrets. If anyone could be trusted, it would be them. “He’s…real?”
Zoe laughed. “Uh, yeah, Gracie. I can see he’s a real boy. Any other fun revelations?”
“No, I mean he’s really Haemosu.”
Zoe looked over at Hae, who nodded in confirmation.
“When you say ‘really Haemosu,’ you mean…”
“I am the sun god,” Hae said. “Celestial prince, remember?”
Zoe looked between Grace and Hae, as if searching for the punchline. “So, you’re both telling me that you”—they jabbed a finger at Hae—“once controlled the sun?”
“Ah, no, that’s a misconception. I just brought the sun every morning.”
“Yes, of course, my bad.” Zoe laughed. “Then what do retired sun gods do these days? You here to ride the Tilt-A-Whirl?”
“Wait.” Grace held up a hand. “Are you saying you’re just okay with this?”
Zoe slung an arm around Grace’s shoulders.
“Friend, you are the most logical and sound-of-mind person I know. If you’re telling me something is real, then it’s real.
” Then they shrugged. “Besides, I grew up with a mom who told me to cover my feet at night if I didn’t want a witchbird sneaking in and sucking the blood from my toes. ”
Grace was in a bit of shock at Zoe’s easy acceptance.
They’d always marched to the beat of their own drum, but this was a level even Grace couldn’t have anticipated.
She glanced back at Hae. He was smiling in soft approval.
Clearly he already liked Zoe. And, Grace realized, it made her a little jealous.
As they set up the ring-toss booth, Grace filled Zoe in on the last couple of days.
“So you guys think the portal to the celestial realm is on our library roof?” Zoe asked as they twirled one of the rings on their arm.
“It’s a theory,” Grace said, counting out the change in the till.
The booths were all run by different student groups and sports teams. The student council was responsible for running the ring toss.
But when no one wanted this first shift, Grace had bribed Zoe to help out.
She now owed her friend at least three churros and a serving of fried dough before the end of the carnival.
“Aw, so this might be the last time I see you?” Zoe said to Hae, who was leaning lazily against the booth’s counter. “But we only just became friends.”
“Friends?” he asked.
“Of course, any friend of Grace’s is a friend of mine.” Zoe winked.
“Nice.” Hae grinned, picking up a ring of his own and mimicking how Zoe spun it on their forearm. “If it works, then ideally my powers will be returned properly. I could visit this world whenever I’d like on Oryonggeo.”
“The dragon chariot?” Zoe asked as they leaned forward eagerly. “Oh please, I will give you my left kidney for a ride in a flying chariot.”
Hae laughed. “No need for internal organs. You can definitely have a ride.”
Grace tried to ignore the fact that she suddenly felt completely outside the conversation.
It shouldn’t have bothered her. She was used to Zoe getting along with anyone, regardless of who they were.
But it also felt like such an obvious foil to Grace.
The opposite of how uncertain and awkward she still felt with Hae sometimes.
Just then, Hae put his hand over hers as she shut the till. “Would you like that?”
She blinked up at him. “Uh, what?”
“To ride in Oryonggeo? Is that something you’d like?” He was watching her with a small smile, and she suddenly couldn’t form cohesive thoughts.
“Yeah, um, sure.” She tried to ignore the warmth that clung to her skin even after she pulled her hand out from under his.
“Great.” Hae’s smile widened, and Grace could feel her cheeks starting to burn at the look.
“Um, are you sure you want to hang out here?” she asked, looking anywhere but at Hae. “Isn’t this boring?”
“It’s fine. I’m here because you are.”
“If y’all want to check out the carnival together, I can watch the booth,” Zoe piped up.
“What? No, I’m not abandoning you.”
“I’ll be fine. No one’s going to want to play the ring toss.”
At Grace’s disapproving look, Zoe bumped her shoulder. “You know I’m right. Just grab me a churro. First of three owed.”
“I’m not making you watch the booth alone,” Grace insisted.
“I’ll get the churro,” Hae volunteered.
“I don’t know if you should wander around by yourself.” Grace looked around the crowded carnival. It had only just opened, but already dozens of people passed the game booths.
“Come on, Gracie. If he can wield a big badass sword, he can brave the line at the churro stand.”
Grace sighed, outvoted, and handed a twenty to Hae. “Just go straight to the churro stand and back.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Hae said with a wink and grin. Which played havoc on Grace’s pulse and did nothing to assure her he’d listen. But he’d merged into the crowd before she could call out another warning.
“He’ll be fine.” Zoe patted her on the shoulder. “And now we can talk about all those meaningful looks and flirting.”
“What?” Grace squeaked. “No, it wasn’t…I mean, what flirting?”
“You know, the whole ‘I’m here because you are.’ No straight man talks like that unless it means something or he’s gaslighting you. And I don’t think our resident sun god is the gaslighty type.”
“You’ve been reading too many romance novels.”
“You’re the one blushing every time god-boy smiles at you.” Zoe wiggled their brows, and Grace rolled her eyes, turning from her friend toward a group of junior girls who walked up to the booth.
“Want to play? Just a dollar for three rings!” she chirped in her best salesperson voice.
The girls ignored her, instead using the end of the booth to settle their food trash as they gossiped.
They leaned into each other, forming a tight circle for sharing a secret.
Their harsh laughter triggered an anxiety reaction deep in Grace’s chest. But when they broke apart enough to look over, they didn’t direct their sharp stares at Grace, but at Val Bishop—a junior Grace had shared gym with last year.
Val was walking past the booths, half-heartedly eating a pouf of cotton candy.
“Can you believe she freaking lied to the police?” one of the girls said, loud enough for Grace to hear. By the way Val’s step faltered, it was clear the girl heard.
“Of course, Val has always been a pathological liar.”
“Yeah, she and Chuck Wilson were obviously doing it on the golf course when they got ‘attacked.’ ” The third girl didn’t even bother to lower her voice as she used air quotes on the last word.
As Val walked by, one of the girls stepped out into the path, bumping into Val hard enough to make her drop her cotton candy. It dissolved in a puddle of muddy water from the adjacent dunk tank.
“Oops,” the girl said in a tone that told Grace she wasn’t sorry at all.
Val glowered before storming away.
The girls broke into giggles, trotting off toward the dunk tank, leaving their trash behind. Grace dutifully started cleaning up.
“Wow, I can’t believe they’re being like that when Chuck is literally in the hospital,” Zoe said, shaking their head.
“Wait, what?” Grace had a flashback to the almost accident in front of her house. “Did he get whiplash or something?”
“Why would you think it’s whiplash, of all things?”
Grace let out an awkward laugh. “Oh, I don’t know.”
“Anyway, it’s kind of a wild story.” Zoe grinned the way they did before settling into a long tale.
“Wiki version,” Grace said.
Zoe lifted their eyes to the sky but nodded. “All right, short, boring version it is. Did you hear about how Chuck and Val are back together?”
“No.”
Zoe sighed. “I’ve never met anyone who was so bad at hearing gossip.”
“I have better things to do with my time.” But the truth was Grace knew what it felt like to be the focus of said gossip.
“Well, they were at her house hooking up the other night, and I guess her parents came home early or whatever. So they snuck out to do it on the golf course. And he got attacked.”
“Attacked by whom?”