She’s pouting.Jesus. No, even he wouldn’t have the patience for this.
“It doesn’t suit me.”
Seyoon steps away from the tree and plods forward, knowing I’ll follow. “Yes, it does,” she throws over her shoulder. “When you actually smile instead of frowning like you’re constipated, it lights up your whole face. You turn warm. Plus, you know, you’re the one thing here I can be sure of besides myself. Same way I can count on the sun to rise, I can count on you to have my back, right?”
I stop walking. My shoes plant themselves among the layers of moss and fallen pine needles.
“Is that… ?”
I stop myself from asking:Is that what you really think of me? Or is that for thecameras?
It shouldn’t matter, because we’re both playing pretend. And yet, my pulse skyrockets all the same.
Seyoon’s not paying attention though, instead looking off into the distance. “Wait a minute. I think I see it. Yeah, that’s it. Come on!”
She takes off running, and I follow her, getting whipped in the face by the branches she pushes out of her way. I crane my neck up, spotting a small, rundown hut high above the rest of the trees. We stop at the base. If I weren’t positive this was the right place, the several cameras attached to the nearby trunks would pretty much confirm it. A strange blend of nostalgia and grief washes over me when I remember that twenty years ago, Dad was here, right where I’m standing. I feel closer to him now—thousands of miles away—than I ever did while under the same roof.
The thought hurts. And it doesn’t help, so I push it away.
There are wooden planks, makeshift ladder rungs, nailed directly into the tree. Seyoon starts climbing them without hesitation.
“Hey, you don’t know how sturdy those are!” I call up. She ignores me, obviously. With a sigh, I dig my nails onto the shallow edge of the first plank, testing the strength of it, then pull myself up.
“So, what do you think?” Seyoon asks as she climbs a few rungs above me.
“About what?”
“Sunshine. It’s cute, right?”
My arms are shaking by the time I’m all the way at the top, about thirty feet up in the air. Seyoon reaches the platform first. Her head ducks out over the side. We’re so close to the roof of the forest here that when the breeze shifts the foliage around, the sun filters through in blinding streams. I have to squint to look at Seyoon.The golden rays backlight her gentle, smiling face, forming a near-perfect crown.
She extends her hand down. I take it, grateful, as she helps pull me up over the edge.
“It suits you better,” I tell her. Then I glance back the way I came.
“Don’t look down if you’re scared of heights,” she says. Too late. Fuck.
“Okay, let’s—” I scramble away from the edge. How are we going to get back down? Later problem, Dean. “Let’s go inside. Maybe there’s something there.”
The platform is about as wide as a car, and the tiny tree house sitting on it is even smaller. The exterior is simple, with only a door and a dusty window next to it. There’s not even a handle, so Seyoon simply pushes it open.
“Are you kidding me?” she says as soon as the door swings open.
At first I think she’s talking about the half-assed construction job. Literally—only the front half of the tree house is built, leaving a gaping hole in place of where the final wall should be, revealing the miles of forest on the other side.
But no. Worse than the OSHA violation staring us in the face is Carter, with three Garrett Moxley Funko Pops stuffed under his arm, still in their collector cases.
“How the hell did you beat us?” Seyoon asks. “We had the clue.”
“Because I’m not an idiot. Obviously, the significant location for the fifteenth season would be where the betrayal took place. Duh.” Carter adjusts the boxes in his grip and turns his nose up. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to figure out a way to carry all of these down.”
Seyoon holds up her arm when he tries to leave. “What are you taking all three for? Those are ours. You don’t even get extra points unless you take ones from different locations, remember?”
“Oh, I know that. This isn’t so I can get extra points.” He hip-checks her out of the way, and she stumbles into the adjacent wall, the planks of wood there rain-warped from decades of water damage. Carter smiles, but his eyes are flat. “This is soyoucan’t get any.”
Seyoon’s jaw falls. “You’re an asshole.”
“Me? I’m the asshole?You’rethe one who dragged me and my mattress into the lake!”
