Chapter 32
The River Walk Golf Course boasted eighteen holes of regularly manicured greens good enough to host some smaller golf tournaments.
It was also where many of the kids in the neighborhood would sneak at night for clandestine activities.
When they were younger, they played adrenaline-pumping games of Tom and Jerry, a version of hide-and-seek played entirely in the dark with flashlights. But as they got older, kids snuck onto the golf course for more R-rated stuff. Things Grace had never participated in herself.
But as she walked across the green, she couldn’t help but think about the earlier moment with Hae.
He’d been about to kiss her, right? She wasn’t just imagining that. Or maybe she was. After all, she did have a rampant imagination, especially when it came to Hae.
She let herself peer at him from the corner of her eye. Wondering if he felt the same awkward tension she did.
But when he turned to her, she quickly pretended she was studying the sand trap in front of them.
“What’s in there?” Hae pointed at the sparse forest that bordered the course. Dusk had pulled the shadows longer, reaching across the manicured green.
“Oh, um, just some trees.” Great answer, like that isn’t completely obvious. “I mean it’s not really a full forest,” she clarified. “Just a few trees and the river.”
Hae scanned the green toward the tenth hole. “Come on, I don’t see him here. He must have gone in there.”
Grace hurried to take the lead, so she wouldn’t be looking at Hae. Maybe that way her imagination wouldn’t go to forbidden places.
They heard the river before they saw it.
Grace stopped short when it came into view. The river was normally calm, a narrow strip of water that flowed gently between the trees. But now it was three times as wide as she was used to.
“Haechi!” Grace called out, but the roar of the river swallowed the word.
It was violent, thrashing unnaturally as if trying to find someone to drown. Grace took a step back to make sure it wouldn’t be her.
The ground was slick from days of rain, and her foot sank into the softened dirt and grass. She tried to yank her shoe out, and she was dreadfully close to toppling over when Hae took her hand, pulling her free.
His hand felt so warm around hers. Had she ever noticed how large they were before?
“Thanks,” she said, staring at the ground instead of him.
“Stay here,” Hae said. “I’m going to go see if I can find him upriver.”
Grace wanted to tell him to be careful, but Hae had already walked far enough that the sound of the rushing water would have swallowed her words.
She looked down at her shoe, now caked with mud. Shaking her foot didn’t do anything to dislodge the mud.
“Just perfect.” She wondered if it was safe to put shoes in the washing machine.
A rumble of thunder rolled across the sky like a low warning.
This was ridiculous—it had to be safer to stick together.
She started after Hae when she heard frantic barks coming from the opposite direction.
She spun around, calling out for Haechi as she hurried downriver.
She heard another rapid burst of barking and searched the shore but found nothing.
She turned back toward Hae, thinking she’d go grab him to help the search, and realized she’d wandered closer to the water’s edge than she thought.
It raced up to splash against her ankles. She danced back, just catching her balance as the muddy shore sucked at her shoes. Another wave hit her before she could completely recover, successfully knocking her over this time. The river washed over her as she went sprawling.
Haechi’s bark echoed behind her as he finally burst out of the forest. Grace tried to push to her feet, but the mud was slick, and she fell onto her hands and knees.
The water crashed into her, seemed to grab ahold of her and dragged her backward. She tried to grasp onto something, anything, to keep herself on shore, but her hands just clutched at mud.
She was thrown into the rapids of the river, spun by the current. She fought it, muscles burning, and barely surfaced, gasping for air.
Haechi let out a wild bark as he splashed into the water after her.
But before he could reach Grace, the river swallowed her again.