Ha Joon looked up at the top of the ridge.
Closed his eyes.
Breathed in.
Breathed out.
Slow.
Eun Byol's voice came quiet beside him.
"It's still up there."
A pause.
"And I know you don't have a plan. If you do, now would be the correct time to prove me wrong."
He opened his eyes.
Looked at her.
Smiled.
Small.
"I do have a plan. And it goes like this."
He looked back up at the ridge.
"We trap it in the ravine. It can't fly. Not anymore."
Eun Byol stared at him.
"A ravine?"
Her eyes widened.
"You don't mean—"
He cut her off.
"This one."
She looked at him.
Then started to smile despite herself.
"I think we've finally lost our minds."
"Yes," Ha Joon said. "We did."
Her smile faded slightly.
Thinking now.
"There's a problem. How do we get out? If we climb up, we're easy targets. And if we drag it down with us we'll be trapped inside with it."
"Wait—"
Ha Joon cut her off again.
Gently.
"Let me worry about that."
He looked up.
"Are you in?"
Eun Byol looked up with him.
At the ridge.
At the impossible angle of it.
At the sky beyond.
"Is that even a question?"
They both smiled.
Looking up together.
Above them, somewhere in the trees and bushes at the top of the ridge, the ant moved.
Dark.
Growling low.
A sound that came from somewhere deep and wrong.
Its mouth opened slowly.
Like a flower blooming in the dark.
Quiet.
Patient.
Waiting.