When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park

coming home tonight." Her voice is shaky, like she might start crying any second. "He'll be ... away for a while. He doesn't know how long."
    Abuji closes his eyes. He doesn't say anything at first, then speaks without opening them. "If anyone should ask, we will tell the truth. We do not know where my brother has gone, or when he will be back. We do not know. That is all any of you need to say."
    He opens his eyes and looks at us hard. "And whatever happens tonight, you are not to leave the house."
    When he says those last words, he's looking right at
me.
    He doesn't seem surprised. Upset, maybe, but not surprised. The same for Omoni. They don't ask Sun-hee even a single question. It's almost like they expected this.
Whatever happens tonight...
what's going to happen?
    Sun-hee looks scared. She catches my eye and slips out the back door. I follow her a few minutes later.
    She's crouching in the middle of the vegetable garden pulling weeds. The sun is almost gone, but there's still enough light to see.
    We work for a few minutes side by side. I know she's dying to ask questions. But she waits a little while before saying, "Uncle said you're to tell me what you know."
    "I don't know everything," I say. "And what I do know, I found out only yesterday. I wasn't keeping it a secret from you, honest—I just hadn't found the right time to tell you."
    It's the truth. She looks doubtful, but nods for me to continue.
    "Uncle works for the resistance," I tell her. "For the illegal independence movement. He's been working with them for a while now. At night, or when no one's around, he prints a resistance newspaper.
    "That's why he's forcing himself to be on good terms with
all his Japanese customers. To make them think he's
chin-il-pa,
so they won't suspect him."
    The relief I felt when I learned this yesterday! Uncle isn't
chin-il-pa!
He's only pretending to be—so well that he even fooled me. I should have known better. I should never have doubted him.
    Sun-hee is so quiet I wonder if she's heard me. I look over at her. Her face is gray in the dim light. Finally, she whispers, "What else do you know?"
    I tell her that Uncle said the police were hanging around the shop. A lot. For no reason. He thought they suspected him and that something might happen.
    But so soon? I don't think he thought it would be so soon.
    My turn to ask questions. "Did he say where he was going?"
    She shakes her head.
    "Into hiding," I say, thinking hard. "It's a big movement;—he must have friends who'll help him. But how did he find out? I mean, how did he know he should escape tonight?"
    Sun-hee says, "I told him."
    I look at her, my mouth open. I can't believe it—
she
told him? How did she know? She speaks again quickly. "I mean, not because I knew—I didn't know anything. But Tomo came to see me tonight. He told me."
    I whistle between my teeth. "Tomo! I never would have guessed."
    "Opah, do our parents know about all this?"
    I hesitate.
    She pushes out her lips. "Uncle said you could tell me.
Everything"
    "All right," I say. "Our parents know that Uncle works for the resistance. But that's all—Uncle doesn't want them to know anything more than that. And I think that suits Abuji
just fine—he prefers it that way." I can feel my throat tightening a little, but I keep talking. "Abuji also told Uncle to leave me out of it. But Uncle told me anyway because—because he said it was important for me to know."
    Sun-hee gasps. I know what she's thinking: Uncle going against Abuji's wishes? "Sun-hee, I don't mean to be disrespectful to Abuji." My words come slowly. "But it's like he's blind to what's happening here. He goes to work, he comes home and buries himself in his books—he doesn't care about what the Japanese are doing to us. As long as he can study his books, that's all that matters to him."
    Now she looks almost ill, hearing me talk about Abuji like that. She whispers, "Opah, surely Abuji's only trying to protect