13th Boy: Volume 2

by SangEun Lee, 189 pages

Determined not to let Won-Jun forget about her, Hee-So decides to join her school's Girl Scout club so she can stay close to her former-only-in-his-opinion boyfriend, who is in the Boy Scout club. She enlists the help of Beatrice (her random talking cactus, remember? also, he transforms into a human boy for 24 hours once a month on the full moon--just go with it) and gets into the club just in time for the big co-ed campout. There, in addition to implementing her plan to win back Won-Jun, Hee-So finds she must deal with bullies in her club, Won-Jun's childhood friend the weirdly naive Sae-Bom (who refers to herself in the third person and carries around a stuffed bunny rabbit she claims is magically alive but currently not resident in its body), and the ever meddlesome and annoying Whie-Young. Why does he keep talking like he knows everything about her?

Hee-So may be woefully unobservant, but the reader forgives her because she's so focused on her goal that she simply overlooks anything not directly related to its furtherance. And in her defense, Won-Jun is sending her rather mixed signals and proud Whie-Young refuses to explain himself in plain language her one-track mind can process. She can't help but be distracted. Besides, this is the girl who realized she was in possession of a talking, walking, transforming cactus and shrugged, telling herself there was no point in asking questions that would just make her head hurt. It is what it is, no point in wondering why. Just roll with it. This is pretty much her philosophy on everything, with the exception of Won-Jun's dumping her--there's no way she's letting that one go. For his part, Won-Jun finally seems relieved to have gotten involved with such a crazy girl, as he believes she may be the key to straightening out the messy love triangle that has bound him since childhood. Poor Whie-Young's gonna have a rough road ahead. Hee hee.