Chapter 35: The Video

Hyunjin's POV

The company sent me a script on Saturday afternoon.

It came by email from a stranger in the communications department, with a polite subject line.

It was four sentences.

It said I had been tired, that I was grateful for the fans' patience, and that I would return soon, healthy and refreshed.

It said nothing about the room in Vancouver, or the man in the kitchen, or Mara.

I read it twice on the porch step, with a cup of tea going cold between my knees.

Then I took out my own phone.

"Hyung," I said. "I'm not reading it."

Chan sat on the step beside me with his back against the post.

"I wouldn't," he said.

"I'm going to say something. Is that all right?"

"It's your voice."

"Will you stand next to me?"

"Always."

He said it so simply that I had to look at the sea for a moment.

Mara came out of the cabin in her glasses, drying her hands on her jeans.

She stopped when she saw the phone.

"Are you doing it now?"

"I think so."

"Do you want me inside?"

I looked at her.

For three weeks, every time anything dangerous came near us, she had gone somewhere out of sight, or been sent.

I had let it happen, and I would not do it again.

"I want you in the picture," I said. "If you want to be. I'll understand if you don't."

She was quiet.

Then she pushed her glasses up her nose and zipped her hoodie, the one with all the protest patches, to the chin.

"My good jacket," she said. "Where do I stand?"

I propped the phone on the porch rail against a flowerpot.

It was pointed at the three of us, with the red cap of the lighthouse behind.

I counted down on my fingers.

My hands were shaking.

Chan's came up under my elbow and held it, very lightly.

"Hello," I said, to the lens.

My voice came out thin.

I started again.

"Hello. It's Hyunjin. I'm sorry I've been quiet.

Keep reading free with an account. Start She Hid Them in Her Lighthouse Cove Cabin, They Asked Her to Stay from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.