Kidnapped by the Time-Traveling Highland Pirate-King, the font over the clinch cover reads in shiny English. A shirtless man stands on the lookout post of a pirate ship, one hand around the wooden pole as both his hair and bright red kilt stream in the wind. In his other arm is a buxom blond woman who seems to have swooned.

It looks delicious. The sort of smutty delicious that Kisa would hide in her dormitory from Yuna, reading only at night under her covers with a flashlight and a pounding heart. It’s been so long since she held a book like this in her hands. Seven years. Her mouth practically waters.

“That was your—Hani’s—favorite,” Somi says with a hesitant smile. “I grabbed it from my room this morning, because I thought you might like to read it.”

“Have you read it?” Kisa asks curiously, delicately flipping to page forty-five. The black letters are dark with water stains, but still perfectly legible. Kisa blushes as she reads a few interesting sentences in chapter fourteen. Oh, yes. This looks quite good indeed.

“What if I told you…” Somi suddenly giggles, before masking the almost girlish sound with a cough. “What if I told you I learned English just to read that book?”

“No,” Kisa chokes out, caught between laughter and shock. “Did you really?”

“Yes,” Somi replies, grinning, and Kisa decides in that moment that she might even be glad she met Nam Somi—even if they met because Somi had tried to eat somebody. “I have a trunk full of them in my room if you want more. There’s this one that I’ve read thirteen times…”

“What is that?” Neither woman had noticed Hajun as he silently crept to their table, but he’s here now, holding a sleep-bleary Hwanin. He’s staring at Kidnapped by the Time-Traveling Highland Pirate-King in horror.

“Er, nothing,” Kisa blurts, stuffing the mass-market paperback in the deep pocket of her scrubs.

Somi grins at Hajun a bit devilishly. “A very, very dirty romance book.”

Hajun goes blue. “Uh,” he says eloquently, clearly fumbling for words. “Is this a book club? Could I join? I know how to read—”

“We know you can read, Hajun.” Kisa quickly rises before he can embarrass himself further. The look he gives her says thank you and oh my God, why did I say that. “How’s Hwanin?” she asks as she takes the baby.

“I just fed him, with the recipe you left me,” Hajun replies, clearing his throat and glancing nervously at an amused-looking Somi.

“Oh, good,” Kisa breathes, and then frowns. “Where’s Seokga?” The red thread stretches out of the café, and the god that it connects her to is nowhere in sight. A hand flutters distractedly to her heart as she feels a small, insistent tug deep within it. “Weren’t you two working together?”