Chapter 86
* * *
We rejoined Lee Seungah.
Ji Nuri asked as she scrolled through her phone.
“We're going into the wave pool. Is that okay?”
“The wave pool is fine.”
Lee Seungah shrugged.
She meant that something like that wasn't scary.
“Right?”
Relieved, Ji Nuri led the way into the water.
We waded through it with splashing steps.
The water rose to our thighs.
Even so, she kept walking.
— “Hmm?”
Lee Seungah's Minimi looked puzzled.
The water rose to her stomach. Ji Nuri kept going farther in without stopping.
— “Uh-oh?”
When the water reached her chest, Lee Seungah's expression gradually grew uneasy.
She must have misunderstood.
Lee Seungah had probably imagined herself floating leisurely in water shallow enough to stand in.
But there was no way a thrill addict like Ji Nuri would do that.
— “This seems a little lacking···.”
Just look at her.
She licked her lips and looked ready to go even farther in.
Eventually, her feet left the bottom completely.
She was now floating along solely on the buoyancy of her life jacket.
“···Don't push me.”
I turned around.
Lee Seungah was clutching my shoulder tightly. She was practically a cicada clinging to a tree.
“I-I'm just holding on.”
“······.”
She really was scared of everything.
“Hey, come over here—!”
Ji Nuri, on the other hand, was completely flying. Flapping her arms and legs, she swam all the way out to the deeper section.
Soon, something strange happened.
The waves began to undulate, then made a peculiar movement.
Ji Nuri sensed it and shouted,
“Here it comes, here it comes!”
It felt as though the water was draining away behind us.
It was a sign that the artificial tsunami was coming.
Following the current, our bodies were pushed backward as if we were being dragged along.
Swoooosh——!
In an instant, the wave shot forward and pushed our bodies along.
“!”
Lee Seungah's face stiffened. She instinctively clamped her lips shut to keep from swallowing water.
— “Waaaaaah!”
That didn't mean her screams couldn't be heard.
Partway through, the screams turned into noise.
It wasn't only Lee Seungah's screams.
Noise erupted from every direction.
Sssss——
Once we were pushed near the beach, the waves gradually settled down.
“···Huff, huff.”
Lee Seungah, who had been pushed near the beach, caught her breath.
“······.”
Rides were all well and good, but having to endure the noise was difficult.
‘Good thing I brought them along.’
Disposable earplugs.
It would have been even harder without them.
I still didn't know how they worked. Maybe it was psychological.
“Are you okay?”
Ji Nuri looked Lee Seungah over from every angle.
“It was nothing.”
Lee Seungah stretched her shoulders proudly. She was putting on a brave front for no reason.
I could clearly see her thighs trembling even from here.
Watching that, I made an incredulous face.
“Hmm···.”
Ji Nuri's Minimi rapidly flipped through its notes.
She seemed to have decided that the wave pool was out.
— “This one won't work, and this one probably won't either···.”
Since Lee Seungah was afraid of almost every ride, Ji Nuri seemed deep in thought.
“Umm···.”
She was still considering her options.
“Then, want to try the lazy river?”
I gestured in another direction.
Ji Nuri raised her head and asked,
“The lazy river···?”
“That one.”
Just then, we saw people drifting down on tubes.
It was an attraction where you floated along a waterway that flowed like a river.
It was good for taking it easy. It wasn't particularly scary, either.
“Uh··· Yeah, that sounds fine.”
Ji Nuri nodded.
Splash, splash—
We entered the lazy river.
There were several entrances, so we could enter or exit wherever we wanted.
“Hnn···.”
After a while, Lee Seungah went completely limp and floated lazily on the water like an otter.
— “···This is kind of boring.”
Ji Nuri's eyes turned sullen. She seemed bored by the aimless drifting.
“······.”
I nodded inwardly.
I guess this really wasn't her thing.
We should rest here for a little while, then go ride something else.
“···?”
Tap, tap—
Just then, cold droplets touched my face.
Water was splashing around.
When I turned my head, Ji Nuri was snapping her fingers.
She had wet her hand and flicked the water at me.
She did it with a mischievous smile.
“······.”
Tap—tap-tap—tap-tap—
She wasn't even splashing me properly. The tiny droplets somehow provoked me even more.
I couldn't just let her get away with it, so I put my hand into the water.
— “Heehee.”
Ji Nuri quickly swam away without even looking back.
How cheap.
I hurried after her.
“Yaaawn···.”
— “···They're having fun.”
Lee Seungah didn't seem particularly interested in whatever we were doing. She was simply enjoying a sunbath on the surface of the water.
“Got you.”
I quickly grabbed Ji Nuri by the wrist.
“Eek.”
Ji Nuri's eyes widened.
She looked surprised that she'd been caught so quickly.
‘She's really slow.’
She seemed to have tried to swim away, at least.
···Maybe it was because of the water's resistance, but she hadn't gotten very far.
“Give me a break just this once.”
Ji Nuri let out a silly little giggle.
“······.”
I smiled faintly without saying anything.
No chance.
Splash——!
I hooked her leg.
Using my body weight, I knocked her into the water without mercy.
We plunged beneath the water at the same time.
———!
In an instant, the sounds around us became muffled.
Scattered sunlight refracted across the surface, clearly illuminating the underwater scenery.
“Phaa!”
Soon, Ji Nuri rose back to the surface.
After coughing a few times, she returned to her mischievous expression.
“Heh···.”
Her playfulness showed no sign of stopping.
Splash, splash—!
She splashed water at me again.
This time, it splashed onto Lee Seungah, who was lying nearby, too.
Then she ran away without even looking back.
“···Ha.”
A faint laugh came from beside me.
Lee Seungah, who had been enjoying a pleasant nap, slowly sat up.
“······.”
“······.”
We exchanged a quiet glance.
Without either of us waiting for the other,
we both took off at the same time to catch Ji Nuri.
* * *
···After playing for quite a while, it was around lunchtime.
We returned to the sunbeds where our parents were waiting.
“Oh my.”
Ji Nuri's mother let out a faint laugh when she saw us.
“Looks like you had a lot of fun?”
We looked at one another.
Every one of us looked like a thoroughly drenched rat. Our hair was stuck all over our faces.
“Everyone must be hungry, right? Let's go eat.”
We looked for a restaurant where we could have lunch.
After a short wait, our food arrived.
I set the bowls down on the table. Lee Seungah and Ji Nuri helped me carry them over from beside me.
“Put that here.”
“Here?”
“Yeah.”
We moved the plates over one by one.
‘Dad and I had ramen, the pork cutlets were for Uncle, Auntie, and Seungah, and Mom and Ji Nuri had udon···.’
I recalled the menus each person had ordered.
Maybe it was because of my part-time job. These days, memorizing things like this was easier than before.
I moved the bowls to their respective places.
‘Done.’
After distributing the utensils,
I sat down too.
‘Ramen really is the thing to eat after playing in the water.’
I took a big bite.
Ramen eaten here had a special charm entirely separate from ramen at a rest stop.
“···.”
Smack.
Just then, Lee Seungah smacked her lips.
This was a scene I'd seen somewhere before.
“Just one bite.”
“······.”
I looked at her without saying anything.
She had food of her own, yet she was still so greedy.
“···Fine. We can trade.”
Lee Seungah moved a piece of her pork cutlet onto a small plate.
“Here.”
She held it out to me.
— “My pork cutleeeet···.”
Even as she did so, she looked reluctant to give it up.
I moved roughly one pork-cutlet's worth of noodles onto the plate.
I even poured some broth over them.
“Here.”
“Thanks.”
When I held it out, Lee Seungah eagerly accepted the plate.
“······.”
Ji Nuri watched them quietly, then let out a nasal hum.
— “···So that's how it's done?”
She looked back and forth between her plate and me.
Then she began moving her chopsticks busily.
“Give me some too.”
Ji Nuri portioned out some udon and held it out.
Did she want ramen too?
Since my father and I were the only ones who had ordered ramen, I was the only person she could ask.
“No, I mean···.”
“Why?”
When I hesitated over trading food, Ji Nuri gave me a disappointed look.
Her Minimi puffed out its cheeks, and its round eyes trembled violently.
“······.”
She didn't seem to understand what her request meant.
She was asking for food her school friend had already been eating, right in front of their parents.
She really didn't know, did she?
All she could see was the ramen.
“···Okay.”
I nodded.
If I delayed any longer, she looked like she might get completely sulky.
We immediately exchanged food.
“···?”
When I felt a gaze from somewhere, I surreptitiously shifted my eyes.
“······.”
Ji Nuri's mother's Minimi was staring intently at us.
More precisely, it seemed to be watching me closely.
— “···Are they closer than I thought?”
Ji Nuri's mother's Minimi murmured quietly.
“······.”
I knew this sort of reaction would come up eventually.
There was one fortunate thing, at least.
Ji Nuri's father was busy talking with my father and wasn't paying any attention to us.
— “Nuri doesn't seem to dislike it, either···.”
No.
— “Ah, I should've ordered ramen too···!”
She simply liked ramen.
“······.”
Ji Nuri's mother silently cut her pork cutlet.
— “···Seungho. He really is such a polite, decent boy.”
It was nice of her to think well of me.
— “I wonder if those two might end up together someday.”
Her Minimi burst into an improper little laugh.
— “My hunches have been right about things like this ever since I was young.”
Who knew.
Me and Ji Nuri, you mean?
I swallowed my ramen without saying anything.
“······.”
Without realizing it, I found myself glancing at Ji Nuri.
“?”
I saw Ji Nuri tilt her head. Somehow, our eyes met.
— “···What's wrong?”
Ji Nuri blinked as she looked at me.
— “···Oh, you want udon, don't you? Honestly, she could just ask and he'd give her some.”
Ji Nuri twirled some udon noodles around her chopsticks and placed them on her plate.
She held them out and asked with a light smile,
“Trade?”
“······.”
Seeing that, I let out a faint laugh.
Ji Nuri was just Ji Nuri.
Roll, roll, roll—
I put some ramen on a plate and handed it to her.
Ji Nuri ate it with a broad grin.
“······.”
I watched her silently.
Hmm.
No matter how I thought about it, that wasn't right.
It seemed like Ji Nuri's mother's prediction had missed the mark.
We were simply sharing food without a second thought.
It was hard to imagine our relationship developing into anything more than that.
······.
After finishing our meal, we headed to a café to rest for a while.
“By the way, should we take a picture before we leave?”
As we were walking,
Ji Nuri's mother suddenly made the suggestion.
“···A picture?”
“Why not? They're all memories. Looking back on them later is really fun, you know?”
The suggestion seemed to carry some ulterior motive, but
I nodded. I was all for taking a picture.
“Then I'll take it for you.”
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(!Sign!)
(There's an AI illustration if you scroll down!)
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(Splashing Nuri)
+ To make up for being late, here's an illustration of 'Tube Seungah'...!