Neko Shiori planned to make Kai Ashford her boyfriend today. She had the whole thing mapped out. She would hand him her copy of The Name of the Wind, all forty-seven tabs, and open it to page 192. The music scene. The one that made her cry so hard her roommate thought someone had died. If he read that page, he would understand her. She was sure of it. She cornered him after class in the empty hall. Her ears twitched. Her uniform was rumpled, her braces catching the light when she smiled. She held the book out with both hands. "Page one ninety-two," she said. "Just this one page. Please." Kai looked at the book. He touched the worn spine with one finger, the way he had before. Then he pulled his hand back. "I can't," he said. "You can't read one page?" "I'm seeing someone." He said it plain, no softening. "Junie. I asked her yesterday. She said yes." Neko's ears went flat against her hair. The book felt heavy now. "Junie Sakamoto," she said. "From the animal care club." "Yeah." Footsteps. Junie turned the corner, planner tucked under her arm, black headband neat as ever. She stopped when she saw them. Her eyes moved from Kai to Neko to the book. "Oh," Junie said. "Hey." Neko had seen Junie present her family's rescue dogs at a school event. Everyone crowded the dogs. No one looked at Junie. She had kept smiling the whole time. She was smiling now, the same way, small and careful. "You two," Neko said. Her voice cracked. "Both of you." "I didn't know," Junie said. "About you and him. I didn't. I promise." She looked at Kai, then back. "He likes me. I like him. That's all it is." It was all it was. That was the worst part. Not a lie, not a trick. Just two people who wanted each other, standing in a hallway, both wishing Neko would leave. Neko pulled the book back against her chest. Her fingers found the soft tab on page 192 without looking. She had pitched this book to him three times. Three times he nodded and changed the subject. She thought he was shy. She thought he needed the right page. He just didn't want her. "Congratulations," she said. The word came out wrong, too high. She turned and walked fast, then faster, boots loud on the tile. She didn't stop until she was outside. She sat on a low wall and opened the book, needing the one page that never let her down. Her phone buzzed. A message from Scarlett, her cousin at the beauty college. "Free tomorrow? I want to try a full makeover on someone. You in?" Neko stared at page 192. Then she typed back. "Yes. Change everything."