Excerpt from Snowglobe by Soyoung Park, Joungmin Lee Comfort, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Ongi and I start for the bus stop. Our commute to the power plant could be made on foot, but with a brooding sky like this, the bus is safer. We trudge through the knee-deep snow, and before long, my breath turns my ski mask into an icy mess over my mouth and nose—though better the mask than my face. A few feet ahead, Ongi pauses under a tree and waits for me to catch up. He can be so sweet, I think. But no sooner do I arrive than he jumps up to a branch to send an avalanche of snow down on my head and shoulders, laughing hysterically.

Seething, I scoop up a handful of snow and pack it into a tight ball. He bolts, shouting, "Race you to the bus stop!"

"Wait!" I shout, already on the move. "Jeon Ongi, you cheater!"

Snow grabs at our boots with each sinking step, rendering our best effort at a dash into more of a lurching shuffle.

"Loser does laundry for a month!" Ongi yells.

"Oh ... You're so done, Jeon Ongi!"

I struggle through the clinging trap of snow with everything I have. And when we dive for the bus stop, it's my hand that touches its bent pole first.

"Ha! Who's laughing now—" I say victoriously, gasping for breath. Sure, I won by a hair, but a win is a win. I'm bent over with my hands on my knees, catching my breath, when Ongi snatches my arm and jerks me behind him.

Annoyed, I straighten to see him narrowing a hard gaze at a figure ahead. Just another commuter waiting for the bus, so what about it? is my first thought, but then the person turns in our direction, and when she acknowledges us with an awkward dip of her head, neither Ongi nor I return it.

Excerpted from Snowglobe by Soyoung Park and Joungmin Lee Comfort. Copyright © 2024 by Soyoung Park and Joungmin Lee Comfort. Excerpted by permission of Delacorte Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.