Page 58 of Blocked Score

“How about you? Coming down for a drink? Or the jiu-jitsu competition?”

“Just a drink, believe it or not,” I say with my lips twitching. “Or a snack. I don’t know. I just can’t sleep.”

“Hm,” Lane hums, his hands propping on his hips. “Me neither.”

It’s weird, but I feel a sudden comfort at Lane’s words. Like I’m not alone in my insomniac struggles tonight. It’s like we’re comrades, and the moment fills with a sort of pleasant, intimate feeling.

Lane dips his head to the living room. “Wanna watch something? I can just tell I’m not gonna be able to fall asleep any time soon.”

I agree, and we sit down on the couch together. Lane grabs the remote and turns on a streaming service. “Have anything in mind?”

“Oh, I do! It’s calledLie to My Heart.”

Lane turns to me, crooking an eyebrow. “Lie to My Heart.”

I nod excitedly. “Yeah, it’s this K Drama that’s supposed to be really, really good that Netflix just got the rights to.”

“K Drama.” Lane uses the same nonplussed inflection he just did when he repeated the title of the show back to me.

I roll my lips. “Don’t tell me you don’t know what K Drama is.”

“Korean, right?”

“Wow,” I reply with sarcastic enthusiasm. “You have the bare minimum of cultural awareness. Good for you, Lane!”

He rolls his eyes and huffs out a laugh. “I know of them, I’ve just never watched any before.”

“Well, you’re gonna love this show.”

Another eye roll and another huff-laugh. “We’ll see.”

Lane’s words are skeptical, but forty minutes later when the first episode ends, he presses theNext Episodebutton so fast it’s like he trained for it.

And when the credits for the second episode roll, Lane’s mouth hangs open.

“How could Min-jung do that?”

“I know,” I answer, equally outraged. “After Joo-hee confided in her about her mother’s illness? To betray her like that just to get assigned to a better project?” I shake my head.

The show is about a group of college students from a top university who secure spots in a cut-throat internship program at some mega-corporation in Seoul. Two episodes in and it’s already brimming with angst, betrayal, and convoluted love triangles.

“Should we stay up to watch the next episode?” I ask.

“Are you kidding?” Lane hits the button to play it.

I belly laugh when Lane lets out the most girlish gasp I’ve ever heard after the third episode starts with a big plot twist.

Tonight, insomnia doesn’t feel so bad.

28

LANE

Aslamming sound jolts me awake.

There’s a pinch of discomfort in my neck. I roll my shoulder to relieve it, and that’s when I realize what I’m sleeping on doesn’t feel like my bed at all.

There’s another slamming sound, just to my left, and it doesn’t sound like anything that should be in my room, either.

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