Chapter 18: On the Record

Chan was awake before I'd finished reading it.

He sat up without a sound, with the phone in his fist and the blanket sliding off his shoulders.

Hyunjin slept on, flat on his stomach, one long arm hanging off the mattress.

"Kitchen," Chan whispered.

I found my hoodie and my glasses and followed him out.

It was seven in the morning.

The stove was cold and the window was grey, and my body felt rinsed and sore and entirely mine.

Chan put the phone on the table between us, face up.

"You had a second phone," I said.

"Yes."

"Rule two."

"I know. I'm sorry. It's the one number the lawyer in Seoul has.

"I switched it on for ten minutes, twice, from the shed. I should have told you."

I looked at his bare chest and the bruise.

I could be annoyed or I could be an adult. It was seven in the morning.

"You tell me now," I said. "Everything on that phone. Every number, every message.

"Rule two is the one I'll actually enforce."

"Done."

He pushed it across to me, and I didn't touch it.

Behind us, a floorboard creaked.

Hyunjin stood in the doorway in boxers and nothing else, with his hair wild and his eyes puffy.

He leaned on the frame, looked at Chan, looked at me, and a very slow smile broke over his face.

"Good morning," he said. "Nobody sleeps in your bed. That's what you said."

"That was the rule."

"I'm quite sure nobody did."

"Nobody did," I agreed. "I was there. I'd have noticed."

He laughed and hid his face in his hand.

Chan looked at the ceiling, and the corner of his mouth moved.

It was the happiest the cabin had ever sounded, and it lasted about four seconds.

The phone rang.

Not a buzz. A proper ring, loud on the wooden table.

The screen said GITAE.

Chan's face closed like a door.

"Let it ring," Hyunjin said.

"If I don't answer, he'll try the lawyer," Chan said. "Or the police in Halifax."

"Put it on speaker," I said.

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