The Last Fallen Star by Graci Kim (ebook reader with highlighter .txt) 📕

“Allegedly,” Taeyo points out.

Emmett shrugs but adds the word to the profile. “Allegedly killed by the Horangi thirteen years ago. Relation to gwisin? Son. Favorite food? Bulgogi taco with extra gochujang sauce.” He pauses and looks over what he’s written. “That should do it.”

Taeyo takes the phone from him and saves the details. “Great. Your profile should now be out in the ether for all gwisin to see. You always get a bunch of random ghosts hoping for a match. But if we start swiping, hopefully we’ll get a match with your mom. If she’s nearby, she’ll respond.”

“This might seem like a silly question,” I say, “but where do the gwisin get their photos taken? And how do they load them into the app?”

“Oh, those are great questions,” Taeyo responds. “You know how there’s always a photo on the funeral altar?”

I nod. At gifted funerals, a large photo of the deceased is placed on an altar and surrounded by flowers, lit candles, and their favorite foods. That way loved ones can gaze at the person’s face and taste food on their behalf. Mourners can even write a letter and then burn it in the candle flames, which delivers the message to the other side.

“Well, I programmed the app to upload the funeral picture into the app’s back end,” says Taeyo. “When a gwisin decides to create a profile, it automatically syncs with that photo.”

“Impressive,” I say. “You’re really smart.”

Emmett rolls his eyes and imitates me in a high-pitched voice. “Oh, you’re so smart, Taeyo.”

I poke Emmett in the ribs—there’s no need to be rude when it’s the truth. But Taeyo just smiles. “Thanks, guys. That’s nice of you to say.”

Emmett doesn’t know how to respond to that, so instead, we huddle around Taeyo’s phone and wait to see what loads. The first photo that comes up is of a sour-faced man, with his name and profile below. It says his life was taken violently, and he is seeking revenge before he passes on to the Spiritrealm.

Taeyo swipes left. “That’s a hangry gwisin. I learned early on it’s best to avoid those.”

“Didn’t he read my profile?” asks Emmett. “I said I was looking for a mom.”

The next photo is of a super-pale woman dressed in white, with long black hair partially covering her face. Her head is angled down, but her black eyes are looking up with a steely gaze, and frankly, she totally gives me the creeps.

“‘My husband cheated on me, and when I tried to confront him, he killed me,’” Emmett reads out loud. “‘I don’t really want to pass on to the Spiritrealm—I’m enjoying haunting him too much. I’m just here to see what else is out there, and keep my options open. In my spare time, I enjoy crawling out of TV screens and taking long walks on the beach. Message me.’” Then Emmett adds with a shudder, “And there’s a kiss emoji.”

The three of us cringe in unison. “Swipe left, swipe left!”

We keep going until we run out of profiles. Emmett’s mom was not among them. The loading wheel keeps spinning, but no new gwisin come up.

“That’s a shame,” Taeyo says finally. “I thought it’d work, but I guess she’s not around here.”

Emmett tenses and fidgets with a napkin. “I knew we weren’t gonna find her. What a colossal waste of time. This is a stupid app.”

“Maybe she already passed through to the Spiritrealm?” I try.

Emmett turns away and shrugs.

“Sorry, Emmett,” Taeyo says, looking genuinely apologetic. “I really thought we could find her.” He turns to me. “Did you want to try locating your parents, Riley? We can change the profile and try again.”

For a moment, I’m tempted. I really am. But, looking at Emmett’s face, I decide against it. Maybe what Sora said is true, and my birth parents were good people. But this is not the time for a reunion.

I shake my head. “Is that it, then? The plan’s failed already?”

Taeyo sits up taller and taps his phone. “Well, there is one other thing we can try.” He reopens the profile page and types in his own info. Under What I’m looking for he says that he’s just an ordinary boy wanting to help nice ghosts reunite with their loved ones.

He looks up at us. “Sometimes a gwisin will ask if there’s anything they can do for you. Like grant a favor for helping them out. Gwisin aren’t tethered to a physical body, so they can roam the Earth at the speed of thought. I could ask one to search for the last artifact.”

“A gwisin would do that?” I ask, surprised.

He nods. “A nice one would.”

As he updates the profile, it dawns on me. Taeyo might not be fixing broken bodies like my parents do, but he’s helping broken souls find peace. If that’s not healing, I don’t know what is. Maybe Sora really was telling us the truth about the Horangi being wrongly accused. They don’t seem that bad….

“Let’s do it,” I say.

We huddle around the phone again and wait for the new profiles to load.

The first one that comes up is a photo of a translucent boy with a bald, egg-shaped head and big round eyes. His name is Casper, and it says he wants to connect with his crush, Kat, but his ghost uncles won’t let him. He needs help in convincing them otherwise.

“He seems like a friendly ghost, but those uncles sound kinda mean,” I say, frowning. “I’d rather avoid fighting with a ghostly trio if I can help it.”

The next profile shows a middle-aged woman hugging her pet turtle. She says she promised Crush a trip to Disneyland, but she died before she could take him. She’s looking for someone to pick up Crush from her sister’s house and accompany him on the Finding Nemo submarine ride. She wants him to learn about where he came from.

Emmett snorts, looking closer at the turtle. “That’s a red-eared slider. They’re freshwater turtles.”

“I’ve always