The guest house looked exactly the way they'd left it that morning.
The paper lanterns hung dark and still along the porch. The little stone lantern stood in the garden beside the tiny pond. Everything was quiet and clean and peaceful, the way everything in Suwon was quiet and clean and peaceful.
Jin slid the door open and stepped inside.
They were all there. Seul was sitting at the low table in the central hall with a cup of tea she wasn't drinking. Joon was pacing slowly along the far wall, his spheres circling his shoulders in tight, restless loops. Echo was sitting on the floor with his back against the doorframe of one of the bedrooms, his eyes half closed. Yerin knelt by the window, looking out at the garden. Yuna sat beside her with her knees pulled up to her chest.
Every one of them looked up the moment the door opened.
Seul was on her feet before he'd even closed it behind him.
"You're back," she said. It came out sharper than she probably meant it to.
