May arrives and Daniel Kwon makes a mistake.
Not a catastrophic one. Not the kind that requires a federal case or a twenty-one night arrangement to untangle. Just a small clean human mistake that reveals something he wasn't ready to show yet, which is sometimes how the important things surface — not through grand confessions but through small unguarded moments that slip out before the management system catches them.
It happens on a Wednesday.
They're on the trail. The one that's become theirs through repetition — the harder one, the ridge with the valley view, the rock where Maya sits and thinks about nothing in particular. She knows every switchback now. She knows the exact spot where the trees open up and the mountains appear all at once like something that decided to be impressive without asking anyone's permission.
