64

MIYOUNG SHIVERED AS an early winter wind swept into her jacket. She sat on the steps beside the sports field, watching the kids who braved the cold to play soccer. The cold was a weirdly effective tool against the ghosts that still swung in and out of her peripheral vision. Like it slowed them down. She shoved her hand into her pocket and wrapped her fist around the talisman she’d bought from Junu. It helped ease the incessant buzzing in her ears.

She didn’t even glance up as Jihoon sat. He pulled out a banana milk and held it toward her.

Miyoung looked at it with a frown, feeling a sense of déjà vu from when he offered her a pair of headphones.

“I have two. It’s a waste if you don’t drink one,” Jihoon said.

She tried to reject it, but he wrapped her hands around the banana milk, holding them cupped between his. The warmth of his palm