❝ 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭, 𝐢𝐟 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐝 ❞ In Seoul, South Korea, a once tight-knit group of 12 people start to loosen their bond, after one of them, goes mysteriously and unexplainably missing. 2 years later...
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2.5 years back
Jisoo and her parents were sitting at Moshulu, a restaurant aboard a clipper ship in the Gangnam harbor, waiting for Jisoo's sister, Sowon, to meet them for dinner. It was a big celebratory dinner because Sowon had graduated from H Penn undergrad a year early and had gotten into Aisle's Wharton School of Business. The downtown Gangnam townhouse was being renovated as a gift from their parents to Sowon.
In just two days, Jisoo was starting her junior year at SNHS and would have to surrender herself to this year's jam-packed schedule: SATS, Acting club, speech writing club, and then 3 letter writing competitions. since everyone knew that the best way to get into an Ivy was to get into one of their pre-college summer camps. But there was one thing Jisoo had to look forward to this year: moving into the converted barn that sat at the back of her family's property. According to her parents, it was the perfect way to prepare for college-just look at how well it had worked for Sowon! Barf. But Jisoo was happy to follow in her sister's footsteps in this case, since they led out to the tranquil, light-flooded guesthouse where Jisoo could escape her parents and their constantly barking Labradoodles.
The sisters had a quiet yet long-standing rivalry and Jisoo was always losing: Jisoo had won the Presidential Physical Fitness Award four times in elementary school; Sowon had won it five. Jisoo got second place in the seventh-grade geography bee; Sowon got first. Jisoo was on the yearbook staff, in all of the school plays, and was taking five AP classes this year; Sowon did all those things her junior year plus worked at their mother's horse farm and trained for the Gangnam marathon for leukemia research. No matter how high Jisoo's GPA was or how many extracurriculars she smashed into her schedule, she never quite reached Sowon's level of perfection.
Jisoo picked up another mussel with her fingers and popped it into her mouth. Her dad loved this restaurant, with its dark wood paneling, thick oriental rugs, and the heady smells of butter, red wine, and salty air. Sitting among the masts and sails, it felt like you could jump right overboard into the harbor. Jisoo gazed out across the river to the big bubbly aquarium. A giant party boat decorated with Christmas lights floated past them. Someone shot a yellow firework off the front deck. That boat was having way more fun than this one was having.
"What's Sowon's friend's name again?" her mother murmured.
"I think it's Joowon," Jisoo said. In her head, she added, As in scrawny bird.
"She told me he's studying to be a doctor," her mother swooned."
"Of course he is," Jisoo quietly singsonged. She bit down hard on a piece of mussel shell and winced. Sowon was bringing her boyfriend of two months to dinner. The family hadn't met him yet-he'd been away visiting family or something-but Sowon's boyfriends were all the same: textbook handsome, well mannered, played golf. Sowon didn't have an ounce of creativity in her body and clearly looked for the same predictability in her boyfriends.
"Mom!" a familiar voice called from behind Jisoo.
Sowon swooped to the other side of the table and gave each of her parents a huge kiss. Her look hadn't changed since high school: her ash-blond hair was cut bluntly to her chin, she wore no makeup except for a little foundation, and she wore a dowdy square-necked yellow dress, a pearl-buttoned pink cardigan, and semi-cute kitten-heeled shoes.
"Darling!" her mother cried.
"Mom, Dad, here's Joowon." Sowon pulled in someone next to her.
Jisoo tried to keep her mouth from dropping open. There was nothing scrawny, birdlike, or textbook about Joowoon. He was tall and lanky and wore a beautifully cut Thomas Pink shirt. His black hair was cut in a long, shaggy, messy style. He had beautiful skin, high cheekbones, and almond-shaped eyes.
Joowoon shook her parents' hands and sat down at the table. Sowon asked her mom a question about where to have the plumber's bill sent, while Jisoo waited to be introduced. Joowoon pretended to be really interested in an oversize wineglass.
"I'm Jisoo," she said finally. She wondered if her breath smelled like mussels. "The other daughter." Jisoo nodded toward the other side of the table. "The one they keep in the basement."
"Oh." Joowoon grinned. "Cool."
"Isn't it strange they haven't asked you a single thing about yourself?" Jisoo gestured at her parents. Now they were talking about contractors and the best wood to use for the living room floor.
Joowoon shrugged, and then whispered, "Kinda." He winked.
Suddenly Sowon grabbed Joowoon's hand. "Oh, I see you've met her," she cooed.
"Yeah." He smiled. "You didn't tell me you had a sister."
