After finishing lunch, I enjoyed visiting the amusement park with Shiyeon.
In fact, it’s true that there was a prejudice against amusement parks being somewhat childish.
However, I learned that this was not the case when it came to size and scale, as there were plenty of attractions to enjoy that easily changed my mind.
Moreover, if we got tired of standing in line, there was plenty of time to sit and rest in the well-maintained garden’s empty spaces.
Well, there were still a lot of people bustling around no matter where we went.
Dinner…or rather, the evening meal became unnecessary after the nonstop eating during our visit to the amusement park.
After an unexpected binge at the amusement park, we walked toward the front gate for a while to help with digestion, and before I knew it, it was 9 PM.
Under the dark sky, students clustered together at the entrance of the amusement park.
“Yawn.”
Although the bright lights made it possible to see each other’s faces, I let out a lazy yawn inside the now fairly dim entrance of the amusement park.
A long ten-hour journey at the amusement park.
No matter where you sat, it felt like you couldn’t get enough rest, and the amusement park remained noisy even at night.
The first day of the math trip was exhausting, even for middle school students with plenty of energy.
After getting on the bus, we arrived at the accommodation in less than ten minutes.
As we entered the accommodation, all I could think of with sleepy eyes was wanting to lie down on the bed as soon as possible.
In a state of extreme fatigue where I felt like I would fall asleep even standing, we were assigned our rooms arbitrarily.
One room for three to four people.
The school tried to minimize gender separation whenever possible….
However, since we lived in a world deeply rooted in Confucian values, males were grouped with males and females with females in the accommodation without exception.
After that, our teacher gave a few short pieces of advice.
“I’m just saying this just in case, but this isn’t an old-fashioned accommodation; it’s a hotel?”
The teacher emphasized that it was a hotel, not some remote lodging prepared by the school.
“If you make a racket at night or get caught drinking alcohol you sneaked in by hotel staff, I’ll seriously just call your parents and send you back, understand? Don’t stay up too late.”
“Yes—”
With a short reply, Shiyeon went with the room with three others.
I got assigned to a room with Seohyun and three others.
So, even though we got split up without hesitation, it didn’t matter whether we were in the same room or not… what we were going to do upon arriving at the accommodation was already decided.
As soon as I arrived in the room, I dropped my heavy bag on the corner wall.
I quickly opened the zipper, took out my clothes, towel, and toiletries, and said to the other three.
“I’m going to shower and sleep; does anyone need to use the bathroom?”
“Huh? Are you going to sleep right away without staying up?”
Seohyun, who still looked lively, seemed surprised by the question.
I nodded at her unexpected expression, agreeing that I wouldn’t be staying up late.
While my eyelids felt heavy, I managed to let out a short phrase.
“Yeah, I’m super tired.”
A characteristic of the math trip outcast.
When night falls, you simply fall asleep without questioning anything.
It’s not that I didn’t know that, but I just couldn’t hold out without sleeping.
In crowded places, I felt like my energy was drained.
Maybe it was due to the fatigue and drowsiness etched deeply into my face?
As soon as Seohyun heard my answer, she asked the other friends in the same room who were organizing their bags.
“Are you going to use the bathroom?”
“No?”
“What about you?”
“Not really….”
“Okay then.”
After getting permission from three people, I confidently opened the bathroom door.
“Then I’ll go.”
For now, my friends weren’t thinking of using the bathroom except for me.
I gathered my change of clothes, towel, and toiletries, slipped on my plastic bathroom sandals, and closed the bathroom door.
As soon as I entered the bathroom, I saw the bright white bathtub.
I felt an overwhelming desire to fill it with hot water and relax in it, but since four people had to use the same bathroom, I thought it was polite to wash up and get out quickly.
Taking off my clothes, I turned the faucet left and pulled it up.
After lightly washing my body with body wash, I wrapped my wet hair in a towel and emerged with the hairdryer.
Including Seohyun, the other two seemed to be full of plans to stay up all night, as they had plugged in everything they could find into the outlets in the room.
One of my friends even brought a power strip and a game console charger, showing just how prepared they were.
“Whoa….”
I couldn’t help but let out a sigh of admiration for their thorough preparedness.
After all, middle schoolers wouldn’t have experienced staying up all night under the strict watch of their parents.
Do they see the act of staying up late as some kind of adult fantasy?
Eventually, they would have to do it whether they liked it or not.
With that thought in mind, I took a chance by using the hairdryer alongside the friend who brought the power strip.
The loud sound of the hairdryer filled the room, as my hair danced in the heat.
After blowing air for a considerable time, I checked my hair, making sure it was dry by touching it with my fingers.
I returned the hairdryer to the bathroom wall, folded my towel and clothes neatly, and put them in a zip bag, separating them from the other items in my bag.
Taking the opportunity to unzip my bag, I also pulled out the eye mask and earplugs I had brought along just in case.
“Mary, if you’re going to sleep, could you turn off the light…?”
Seohyun, who had been standing by the light switch, seemed to be considering turning it off thinking I might not be able to sleep if it was too bright.
Upon seeing the eye mask in my hand, she surprised herself temporarily with my preparation.
She awkwardly lowered the hand that had made its way to the light switch while awkwardly continuing her sentence.
“Oh, you have an eye mask.”
“I’ve got earplugs too.”
I proudly showed my small pair of earplugs, as if to say it wouldn’t matter if it got noisy.
The eye mask tightly stuck on my forehead and the soft earplugs that I could insert into my ears.
Perhaps Seohyun didn’t expect such commitment towards the element of ‘sleep,’ as her expression showed a slight embarrassment.
Do you really need to go that far just to sleep?
Seohyun’s expression seemed to ask that as she forced a smile and waved goodbye.
“Oh, um… good night.”
“Good night.”
I lowered the eye mask from my forehead near my eyes and shifted my body into the smooth bed without a wrinkle.
In the darkness, I could hear faint noises and felt the comforting embrace of sleep.
Even with earplugs, I could still faintly hear the sounds of games and conversations seeping through.
“Are you really going to sleep?”
“I’m a bit drowsy too.”
“Come on, you’re going to hold out until three, right?”
Beyond the sound blocked by the earplugs, I chuckled softly at the muffled conversation.
In a few years, those nights when you don’t have to stay up late might be something you’ll miss, kids.
With that smirk and the accumulated fatigue weighing on me, I fell asleep quickly.
The fragmented consciousness in the darkness was rudely interrupted by the alarm set for 7 AM, pulling me back into a hazy reality.
Since there were four of us, the alarm multiplied four times.
Somewhere in my slumber, I must have lost one earplug, as the alarm sounded clearly in one ear.
With the lights off and the curtains drawn in the dark room, I reached out toward the alarm sound and grabbed my smartphone.
Swiping the red button across the screen, I turned off the alarm.
Three alarms continued to drone on.
I had no idea how late they had stayed up, but the three were still reluctant to wake up.
Looking closely, I noticed Seohyun was the one sleeping beside me.
Thinking she would automatically wake up to turn off her smartphone alarm, I went to the bathroom first to finish my simple wash and brush my teeth.
After five minutes in the bathroom, the alarms continued to ring insistently from the other side of the door.
The three alarms were still ringing loudly with their distinct sounds.
Finally, after I finished washing up, I reached for the light switch.
With a click, the dark room was instantly flooded with light.
The expressions of my roommates, who had looked like they would fall back asleep any second, squinted tightly as if a lemon had been pressed against their tongues.
“Get up, you guys!”
Seeing the three of them looking like they wouldn’t wake up on their own, I yelled at them first thing in the morning.
I felt like I suddenly had three members to wake up instead of just Shiyeon.
Knock, knock, at the sound of knocking on the door, our teacher stuck her head in.
“Mary is already awake? You all need to come down to the dining hall by 20 minutes past?”
“Yes….”
After giving a weary morning response, I let out a deep sigh as I saw the three still wriggling in bed.
They say the early bird catches the worm, but I guess adults can be wrong sometimes.
Let’s revise that saying to mean the early bird has a hard time.
Somehow, I managed to wake the three of them.
“What time did you go to sleep?”
As we headed to the dining hall, I asked the three who were still yawning a bit about how late they had stayed up.
“Weee, around two-thirty?”
“No, we held out until three.”
“Didn’t we sleep at two?”
It was like a riddle from the old days as the three were all contradicting one another.
Breakfast was a hotel buffet.
The state of our bodies, which had gone to bed early at 10, was simply at its peak.
With appetites that could not be displayed in a sleepy mind, we feasted on sushi, fried chicken, fried rice, sweet and sour pork, and more.
After not having had any snacks the night before, we were fully prepared to feast and fill our stomachs.
“Enjoy your meal!”
“Yeah!”
In a space occupied by students, the teachers also joined in to have breakfast together.
Yes, isn’t this what memories and travel are all about?
