Autumnal Equinox (JinJi)

Six

About Right

"So," Jisoo said, fidgeting with her hands behind her back. "You're moving to New York?"

Jinyoung was running the flashlight on his phone along the wall of the dim hallway. All the doors of the classrooms had been unlocked, meaning that Jennie must have hidden some QR codes in them. The desks had been switched out for newer ones, though, so it was an odd mix of familiar and unfamiliar.

"What?" Jinyoung said, turning to her. "Oh, yeah. At the end of the summer. Shortly after the wedding, I guess."

Jisoo walked alongside him. She looked at the new art club's artwork on the walls of the school. Flyers announced club sign up days and baseball games. Photos of unfamiliar teenagers lined the walls. It was such a strange feeling, like coming home and finding out that a stranger had been living in it all this time.

"You must be really excited," Jisoo said. Jinyoung chuckled lightly.

"Something like that," he said, switching the flashlight to his other hand. "Minji called it a promotion, but it really feels more like a lateral move to me. My new position has basically the same pay and the same responsibilities. Only thing different is the location and title."

He wasn't looking for a promotion in the first place. Minji had thrown his name in for consideration without his prior consultation. The offer came to him so quickly, and he couldn't find the courage to say no to his boss, his girlfriend's father.

"I'm jealous," Jisoo said, picturing Times Square and Central Park. Jinyoung scoffed.

"What do you mean?" he said, elbowing her. "You got to live in Hollywood for five years."

"You mean I got to barely get by in Hollywood for five years," she said. She shone her own flashlight on the ceiling.

"Most of the time, I was out of a job," she said, recalling those dark days. "Scraping around for pennies so I could eat and begging for work. You've already got a job in New York, so you're all set. And you have a girlfriend. So of course, I'm jealous."

Jinyoung pressed his lips into a line.

"To be honest, I'm not exactly sure about New York," he said.

New York was really all Minji's idea. She had her heart set on it, and as her boyfriend, he felt obligated to be excited, too. But the awful truth was that he wasn't. Not really. He couldn't voice this aloud to Minji for fear that he would dampen her spirits. But he felt freer to think and feel as he pleased with Jisoo.

"But then again," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's normal to feel uncertain right before you make a big move, right?"

His words made Jisoo remember the way she felt right before skipping town. Of course, she had been nervous. Nervous the night before, nervous on the plane, and nervous when she stepped off at LAX. But that wasn't because she was going somewhere far away. That had been because she was scared that she'd ruined their friendship.

She cleared her throat and chose to move on to another topic.

"Speaking of big moves," Jisoo said. "Boyoung Unni is getting married. What's her fiancee like?"

Jinyoung paused to open up a cabinet against the wall. No QR codes yet. They could hear others running up and down the stairwell. Earlier, they had run into Mark and Jaebum, both of whom had already found four and were in the lead, according to the scoreboard on the app.

"He's Japanese," Jinyoung said, speaking of his sister's beau. "Works in sports medicine. They met at a tae kwon do tournament three years ago, her team had a competition in Hokkaido. He was the doctor on duty. She said that she had just finished winning a match and he came up to her and just asked her out."