Chapter 83
* * *
Several more days passed after we went to the cinema.
“······.”
Creak—
I leaned back against the chair in my room and looked down at my phone.
— [Club President : Can everyone say where they'd like to go?]
A message had been posted in the Counseling Club group chat.
We were in the middle of deciding where to go on our summer trip.
Senior Minji added to the club president's message.
— [Vice President : Places you don't want to go are fine too!]
— [Vice President : (clenched-fist emoji)]
— [Vice President : I think somewhere with water would be nice.]
Senior Minji was subtly pushing her own preference.
— [Isol : I'm fine with anywhere except the sea.]
— [Vice President : How about the sea?]
ㄴ [Vice President : (Deleted)]
The timing overlapped.
The message that had just been posted was quickly deleted.
— [Vice President : Really? Why??]
— [Isol : It's just···.]
— [Isol : I don't really like getting sand on me.]
True.
Wiping sand off was a real pain.
Especially given Isol's temperament.
— [Lee Seungho : I'm not big on the sea either.]
— [Isol : (bouncing hamster emoji)]
For the same reason, I also tended to avoid the sea among places to go swimming.
— [Shin Ayoung : How about a valley?]
— [Isol : I like that.]
I liked valleys too.
— [Club President : Then shall we make the valley our destination?]
— [Vice President : (voting-in-favor emoji)]
Senior Minji, as well as all the others, agreed.
It seemed the destination had been decided: a valley.
— [Club President : Then we need to decide on a time.]
— [Vice President : How about next week?]
“······.”
I tilted my head at that message.
Next week probably wouldn't work.
I had plans then.
— [Ji Nuri : (startled-cat emoji)]
— [Ji Nuri : I can't go then.]
— [Ji Nuri : I'm going on a family trip next week ㅠㅠ]
— [Club President : Then how about the week after next?]
That would work.
— [Lee Seungho : I'm fine with that.]
I sent a message right away.
Knock knock—
Just then, I heard a light knock from beyond the door.
“Yes—”
When I answered,
Lee Seungah poked her head through the gap.
“Mom says to come out and eat some watermelon.”
“Yeah.”
I put down my phone and followed her out to the living room.
“Oh, son. Sit down and have some of this.”
My parents were sitting on the living room floor, eating watermelon.
— Nom.
I joined them and took a big bite of a slice.
The sweet flesh melted across my mouth. It was really delicious watermelon.
After enjoying the watermelon for quite a while,
“Oh, right.”
Lee Seungah sprang to her feet while chewing her watermelon.
She suddenly stood in the middle of the living room.
Ahem— She cleared her throat.
“······.”
What was she planning to do this time?
My parents' eyes, along with mine, turned toward her.
“We're going to Gimhae for our vacation.”
Lee Seungah declared it as though making an announcement.
“···Gimhae?”
My head tilted to the side.
It was a rather out-of-the-blue statement. Hadn't we already decided to go somewhere else for vacation?
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
“···.”
My mother looked dumbfounded.
My father said nothing, but he seemed to be thinking the same thing.
His Minimi let out a hearty chuckle.
“Hehe.”
Lee Seungah instead straightened her back proudly.
— “They all have exactly the expression I expected.”
Her Minimi wore an innocent smile.
It gave off the air that she had planned this.
“Ta-da.”
Lee Seungah pulled out a sheet of paper.
“···Tickets?”
Four long, paper tickets.
“Those are water park tickets?”
“Not just any water park tickets. They're for the largest water park in the country.”
Lee Seungah waved the tickets back and forth.
“···Where did you get those? Did you buy them?”
“Of course I got them as a gift.”
“A gift? From whom?”
“You remember that unni who said she'd come to the last event but didn't?”
“Uh···.”
Come to think of it, that had happened.
“She gave them to me. She said it was a thank-you gift for selling in her place.”
“Really?”
These tickets
were package tickets that included a stay at a nearby hotel.
Whether she'd made a lot of money from the merchandise or was simply rich to begin with,
she was generous either way.
“She gave them to me before so we could go somewhere in the summer.”
— “I almost forgot about them after accepting them···.”
No wonder she hadn't said anything beforehand and was only bringing it up now.
Was that why?
— “Good thing the others told me···.”
Apparently, the other kids who had opened the booth with her had received tickets too.
If they hadn't told her, it would have been a gift she'd lost forever.
“···Huh?”
I narrowed my eyes when I saw the wording beneath the tickets.
I slowly read the letters.
The expiration date is···.
“···Hey, the expiration date isn't far off.”
“Huh?”
Lee Seungah checked the tickets again.
“Uh-oh···.”
Her pupils darted left and right. She read the wording over and over.
After a brief wait,
she slowly raised her head.
“···It isn't?”
Lee Seungah put on an awkward expression and gave me a cutesy smile.
Seriously.
What was I supposed to do with her?
* * *
The day of our family trip.
We ended up leaving earlier than planned.
Fortunately, we didn't need to change the dates of our vacation.
The first day of our vacation happened to be the final day of the tickets' validity, so we could barely use them in time.
I wasn't sure whether to call that lucky.
Anyway, it worked out.
“······.”
···That aside.
“······.”
I was standing alone with Lee Seungah at a rest stop.
“Hoo-ooh···.”
Lee Seungah had a face that looked as though she were about to die.
She had suffered severe motion sickness.
The long-distance trip was the reason; it had been a while since she'd traveled that far.
“Ugh···.”
Lee Seungah used my shoulder as a support and panted.
— “I feel so damn queasy···.”
I couldn't hear any noise, at least. She seemed to be holding up better than I had expected.
She was being terribly dramatic.
Her Minimi had already gone limp over her shoulder.
“···You really are something.”
I let out a deep sigh as I looked at Lee Seungah.
Unable to stand watching any longer, I said something.
“That's why I told you to take motion sickness medicine.”
I should have known from how stubbornly she refused to listen.
I knew this was how it would end.
“···.”
Lee Seungah didn't answer. She didn't seem to have the strength.
— “···Who could've known I'd get carsick?”
Instead, she grumbled inwardly.
“What about food?”
“I don't want any···.”
“Then go sit outside for a while.”
“Mmhmm···.”
I sat Lee Seungah down on a bench in the corner.
She slowly closed her eyes.
I should leave her like this.
Maybe she'll feel better after getting some fresh air.
“Where's Seungah?”
My father came back after parking the car and looked around for her.
“She said she'd sit on the bench for a bit.”
“Really? What about food?”
“She says she isn't eating.”
My father nodded.
We headed to the food court inside the rest stop to have lunch.
I ordered a bowl of ramen, while my parents had hanjeongsik.
It was the same menu we always ate when traveling.
After waiting a little, a bell rang. I carried the piping-hot food back to the table.
“Mmm.”
Slurp— sluuurp—
As expected, ramen at a rest stop had a special appeal of its own.
Slurp—
I happily dug into the noodles.
“······.”
After we had continued eating for quite a while,
I spotted Lee Seungah walking in from the other side. It was an unexpected discovery.
She looked around, then spotted us and trudged over.
Scrape—
She pulled out a chair and plopped down in the seat across from me.
“Feeling any better?”
My mother looked at her with concern.
“Better than before.”
Lee Seungah gave an awkward smile.
The color had definitely returned to her face compared to earlier.
She must have recovered.
Slurrrp—
I noisily slurped up the noodles.
“······.”
Lee Seungah stared at me.
It was a strangely distracting gaze.
— “Smack.”
Lee Seungah smacked her lips.
“···Can I have just one bite?”
“Just order another bowl.”
“It feels awkward to order one now···. I'd have to wait too long.”
Oh, yeah.
I figured as much.
“I already ordered another one, so go get it.”
“Huh? Really?”
Lee Seungah looked surprised.
Her eyes seemed to ask what I would have done if she hadn't eaten it.
‘There's no way she wouldn't eat.’
I had calculated it well enough.
I could roughly tell how she was doing from her Minimi, too.
More importantly, I had years of experience.
I had determined that Lee Seungah would definitely come over to steal a bite.
“Hehehe.”
Lee Seungah brought the ramen over with a beaming smile.
Slurp—!
Just look at her.
She eats really well.
······
“Whoa, what the heck!”
Before I knew it, Lee Seungah was back to normal.
After one meal, she had completely recovered her energy and was darting around full of life.
“The view is insane···!”
She wandered around the room, repeatedly letting out exclamations of admiration.
‘It is nice.’
This was the hotel beside the water park, where we would be staying until tomorrow.
The quality was different right from the basic furnishings, as befitted its price.
There was a living room, a capsule coffee machine, and all sorts of other things···.
I suppose good hotels really were different.
— “Holy crap! This room is huge!”
Lee Seungah's Minimi bounced up and down on the bed.
She was having a great time.
After playing there for quite a while, she dashed off somewhere else.
“······.”
Hmm.
I slowly looked around. No one was in the room; everyone must have gone somewhere.
I quietly climbed onto the bed.
I tried bouncing up and down.
Bounce—!
“Mmm.”
It was soft.
Very much so.
“Phew—”
I climbed down from the bed, feeling thoroughly refreshed.
Come to think of it, there had been a café in the lobby.
— [Lee Seungho : I'm going down to the first floor for a bit..]
I told my parents where I was going, then went outside.
‘Here it is.’
I arrived at the café.
Its exceptionally clean interior immediately caught my eye.
They sold bread, and of course, coffee as well.
I texted my parents to ask whether they wanted coffee.
Everything looked delicious, so I figured I should take something back.
‘I'll get this too···.’
I was putting the bread into a bag one item at a time when—
— “Wow, there's a café here too···!”
A familiar voice drifted over from somewhere.
I instinctively turned my gaze toward it, only to—
“···?”
come to a complete stop.
There was a familiar person there. It was Ji Nuri.
She had been walking along with an innocent smile when—
“···.”
“···.”
she came out of the café and found herself facing me.
Our gazes met briefly.
Ji Nuri blinked blankly several times.
“?!”
It didn't take long for Ji Nuri's voice to rise.
‘What the hell is going on.’
I narrowed my eyes.
···Why was she here?
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(!Sign!)
(There's an AI illustration if you scroll down!)
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(Seungah)