Chapter 37
After playing by the river, we took a short break and ate.
The dinner menu was barbecue grilled in the mountains!
...It would have been, but since I couldn't go near the fire, I watched from a slight distance.
“Whoa! It really tastes best grilled over charcoal!”
“It's nice that it isn't too tough.”
Just watching was painful enough, but the hardest thing to endure was my friends' reactions.
It was as torturous as watching a mukbang while on a diet.
Of course, some meat did make its way to me.
Hyeonwoo and Haru occasionally brought me meat, so I put it into the naengmyeon Hyeonwoo had brought and ate it….
...Still, I want to eat hot meat fresh off the grill.
Still, what could I do…. This was all because I had turned into a Snow Woman.
“Sigh.”
I lamented my life as I put a piece of pork rib from the naengmyeon into my mouth.
...Huh? This is pretty tasty in its own way?
As expected, meat was meat, and it was delicious even with naengmyeon.
Nom nom.
I ate my fill of meat with the naengmyeon like that.
Heehee…. It's tasty….
======
After we finished eating.
Once the sun had completely set and a pitch-black night sky spread out before us, Juhyeok led us somewhere.
The mountains were so dark that the brightly shining moonlight, contrasting with the dark sky, and the stars rarely seen in the city seemed like the only sources of light.
There was only one sort of activity Juhyeok could possibly have planned in a place like this.
“All right, then, a test of courage….”
Juhyeok took a deep breath and shouted like some announcer on TV.
“Leeeet's beeeegin!!”
“Woooow….”
We applauded for his passionate reaction, but
I stood there with a grimace, in stark contrast to the excited-looking Juhyeok.
“Haha, this sort of thing is pretty fun too.”
“I'm worried the whole mountain might freeze….”
Haru was smiling brightly, apparently enjoying scary things, while Hyeonwoo was worried for some strange reason.
The mountain freezing over…. Why? Was an ice age suddenly going to arrive?
“Then I'll explain the rules first.”
Juhyeok coughed a few times, perhaps from the aftermath of his shout, then explained the rules of the test of courage.
“But there's not much to it, really. You just follow this path all the way and come back.”
That was the end of the explanation.
“Are we sure this is really a path we're allowed to take? Why is there even a path here in the first place…?”
Juhyeok had brought us to a one-way path deep in the mountains.
It certainly was a good place for a test of courage, but….
“Even if you ask why it's here…. It's here because this is the campground's test-of-courage course.”
Good grief, they'd really made a path solely for a test of courage.
It wasn't an ordinary path; knowing that it had been made specifically for a test of courage made me want to go in even less.
“It hasn't really been maintained since the campground went under…. But there shouldn't be anything serious.”
The fact that it hadn't been maintained seemed like a pretty serious problem to me.
What if some wild animal came out….
Despite my anxiety, all three of them seemed determined to enjoy the test of courage, insisting that there was nothing to worry about.
Ugh…. Am I the only one scared….
“It'd be better to go in pairs, so the teams will be….”
“Great, Juhyeok, shall we go?”
Before Juhyeok could finish speaking, Haru grabbed his arm and tried to walk toward the course.
“Uh...? I was going to draw lots….”
“There are only four of us. What's the point of drawing lots? We can just go as one boy and one girl each, right?”
“Uh.... I guess so….”
“I'm scared of things like this, so I want to go with someone dependable…. So lead the way for me, okay?”
“Uh... O-okay….”
What was she talking about? Until just now, she'd looked like she wasn't afraid of anything.
She really was a sly fox….
“Then we'll go first.”
“We'll be back soon, so wait here.”
Haru, who looked as if she'd achieved her goal, waved at us, and Juhyeok, who had ended up going with her before he knew it, walked toward the course with a confident expression.
"Haaah... They're having a blast... ”
“They're just trying to make some memories. Though Haru has a slightly different reason.”
“I guess so….”
She'd been subtly clinging to Juhyeok while claiming to be scared, and the moment the idea of going in pairs came up, she'd tried to go with him.
It was the obvious look of a sly girl trying to take advantage of the one-plank bridge effect.
Haru seemed to have come here to build love, not memories.
“Well, putting that aside..."
Hyeonwoo looked toward me and spoke.
"Seolhwa, are you okay?"
"Huh? What do you mean, am I okay...?"
"...You're shaking like crazy."
Just as Hyeonwoo said, my legs were trembling so hard I couldn't control them.
...What's gotten into them?
“The girl who went into a haunted house for fun looks like she's scared of this?”
"Th-that’s different from this!"
At amusement parks, everyone knows that haunted houses are run under strict supervision, startling people for fun, so you can simply enjoy them as a game.
On the other hand, the psychological fear of not knowing what might happen in the mountains made this dozens of times scarier than a haunted house.
...Though I did pass out at the amusement park too.
“If you're scared, you can rest here. I'll go by myself. Just don't freeze the mountain again like last time.”
Hyeonwoo, mindful of the disaster last time, told me to rest in a worried tone, but...
His tone, like an adult soothing a child, hurt my pride.
"Wh-who says I'm scared of something like this! I'm going too!"
“No, but….”
"Shut up! I'm an adult too! A mountain like this is nothing to me…."
I looked toward the test-of-courage course.
A pitch-black space where countless trees and grasses blocked the moonlight, leaving me unable to see a thing.
...Could I really go...?
“Aaaaaah!! It's a ghost!!”
Just then, Juhyeok's sudden scream echoed throughout the mountains.
“...Is Juhyeok okay?”
“He's actually pretty scared…. He just pretends he isn't….”
The fact that the guy who had organized the test of courage had been more startled than Haru beside him left both of us at a loss for words, overwhelmed by indescribable feelings.
Hyeonwoo shook his head and looked at me before speaking.
“Anyway…. So what were you going to say, Seolhwa?”
“...Please come with me. I'm begging you.”
This test of courage was, strictly speaking, supposed to be done in two-person teams.
So, even if only because of the rules, I had to go with Hyeonwoo. Yes, that's all it was. That's what it was.
...It was absolutely not because I was scared and wanted to go with him!
======
After waiting a little, Juhyeok came back along the path, hiding behind Haru.
Of course, “hiding” was a generous description; with the difference in their builds, it was obvious that he was trembling and limping.
“You're the one who suggested a test of courage, and you're shaking that badly?”
Hyeonwoo looked down on Juhyeok with his arms crossed, apparently finding him pathetic.
“N-no…. There really was a ghost! You think I wouldn't be scared?”
...A real ghost?
“Where would a ghost come from? Didn't you just mistake grass shaking in the wind for something else?”
“No way! I said there really was one! It shook the grass like crazy, then suddenly hit my leg and went away!”
Juhyeok insisted there was a ghost, as if wronged, and rolled up his pant leg as proof.
His leg really did look bruised, as if something had struck it.
That must have been why he'd been limping on the way back.
Ah, this won't do. We should just give up on the test of courage and go back to sleep….
“Haru, so what really happened?”
Hyeonwoo asked Haru in a tone that made it clear he didn't believe a word Juhyeok had said.
Haru sighed in disappointment and spoke.
“A ghost? Don't be ridiculous…. You just saw grass shaking in the wind, got startled, and fell over.”
Urgh….
“Pathetic….”
“I'm telling you, that's really what happened….”
Apparently, the two of them thought Juhyeok had made up the ghost because he was embarrassed about falling over by himself.
“Ah! I really did see it! Why won't you believe me?!”
Juhyeok kept insisting that he'd seen a ghost, but neither of them paid the slightest attention to him.
“Seolhwa! You believe me, right?”
“Huh? Me?”
Since neither of them was listening to him at all, Juhyeok looked at me and pleaded with me to believe him.
At that look in his eyes, I....
“...If it were someone else, maybe, but you, Juhyeok, are a little….”
“Aaaaaah!! What did I do wrong for none of you to believe me like this?!”
I scratched my cheek and honestly told him I couldn't believe him, so Juhyeok shouted and raged as if he'd been grievously wronged.
And I let out a slight mocking laugh.
I only joked that I didn't believe him to tease him a little, but this is more fun than I expected….
I felt like I was beginning to understand why the others teased me.
“Haaah….”
Meanwhile, Haru looked at Juhyeok and sighed.
“He was so cool back then…. How did this happen to him…. Sigh….”
“Huh? What did you say, Haru?”
“Nothing. I'm going for a walk over there for a bit.”
“Oh! Hey! Wait! It's dangerous to go alone!”
Haru looked quite disappointed as she headed off somewhere else by herself, so Juhyeok followed after her, saying it was dangerous.
Haha…. Those two are going to take forever to get together….
“All right, shall we get going?”
“Huh? Uh.... You're not planning to continue the test of courage, are you?”
Although I'd thought the test of courage would be canceled after that little incident, Hyeonwoo looked fully intent on continuing.
“I like this sort of thing too, so I'm going. But you don't have to if you're scared. It'd be troublesome in all sorts of ways if you fainted in the mountains.”
“Ugh.... Th-this isn't scary! And who do you think is going to faint?!”
Hyeonwoo kept talking about ghosts until I grew a little uneasy, but backing down here would be bad for a man's dignity….
...Though I'm a woman now.
“Hah…. If that's how you want to put it….”
Hyeonwoo scratched his head and spoke.
“I guess we'll have to go together. It'd be a disaster if you fainted alone in the mountains.”
“...Okay.”
Hyeonwoo decided to go with me in case something happened again like last time.
Seriously…. He's way too worried about everything….
Surely I wouldn't faint again just because I was scared….
“Ugh….”
Though I'd loudly declared that I was going, my fear apparently couldn't be hidden as I looked at the dark path ahead, and my feet wouldn't move.
“What's wrong, Seolhwa? Aren't you coming?”
“......”
When I didn't follow, Hyeonwoo tried to reassure me, saying it was okay if I didn't come, but…. I couldn't stand feeling as if I'd lost by giving up like this.
...Of course, that didn't make my feet move either….
Can't be helped…. In that case…
“...Hey, Hyeonwoo.”
“What's wrong?”
“...Excuse me.”
I gently reached a hand toward Hyeonwoo and grabbed the collar at the back of his shirt.
“Huh…?”
“...What are you doing? Hurry up and lead the way.”
“Uh... Yeah... Okay….”
Hyeonwoo seemed a little flustered, as though he hadn't expected it.
...But I couldn't help it. If I didn't do at least this, my feet wouldn't move….
“Then we're going…?”
“...Yeah.”
And so I entered the path for the test of courage with my hand clutching Hyeonwoo's collar.