On the second day, there wasn’t really an event that could be called a special experience.
It’s often referred to as a ‘show-off schedule,’ right?
They claimed it was a tour of Seoul National University, but it was just wandering around the nearby area.
In the process, there were a few male students who sneaked off to a PC bang, completely obsessed with some games.
If you’re going to do that, why did you come on the trip?
And what was unexpected was the National Museum of Korea.
Since we were supposed to spend two hours in the museum according to the schedule, I thought, “Great, I’ll have to waste two hours with these rotten fish-eye gazes…” but then I spotted a souvenir shop.
This was an unforeseen treasure.
Soju cups engraved with scholars drawn in an old painting style.
When you pour liquid into them, the scholar’s face that was transparent turns bright red as if it’s drunk.
Mother-of-pearl tumblers, cups with patterns of royal garments, celadon-shaped bowls, and Goryeo celadon AirPods cases.
In comparison to the soulless and trash-like souvenirs sold at local tourist shops, they were selling quite practical items or things that sparked a peculiar desire to collect.
I immediately bought a mother-of-pearl tumbler for 54,000 won.
If we’re talking about items that evoke a desire to collect, there was a miniature golden incense burner for 99,000 won.
No matter what, I rarely light incense at home.
“Oh, there’s one situation where I need to light it.”
Thinking back, I remembered the mascot that had to smell incense behind the folding screen when I got home.
Hmm, buying one to hold a funeral for Gomtaengi might not be a bad idea.
I barely overcame the impulse buy and returned to the accommodation after finishing all the schedules.
The second day’s itinerary passed by quickly, to the point where it could be said to have flown by.
But compared to the day spent in the amusement park for ten hours, a qualifier was in order.
The three of us who painfully endured until dawn today, had a rough day.
As soon as it was bedtime, they collapsed into their beds, making me wonder if those who had teased me for sleeping early on the first day were the same.
It was as if their behavior was proving that my actions on the first day had been correct.
The three took their showers first and collapsed on the beds, leaving plenty of time to soak in the tub on the second day.
Satisfactory souvenirs from the museum, a satisfying meal, and a free schedule.
Before finishing what was a perfect travel day that a student could enjoy, I fiddled with my smartphone and sent a message to Shiyeon.
[Are you there?]
After sending the message, it had been about three seconds, right?
The number 1 that was next to me suddenly disappeared.
Another three seconds passed, and Shiyeon’s message returned.
[Not yet]
[Do you stay up all night there too?]
Shiyeon, who I hadn’t been able to meet much on the second day because we were all busy moving around with the friends in the same room.
As we unraveled the stories piled up, our fingers moved busily.
Suddenly curious if Shiyeon’s room had also planned a grand scheme to stay up until dawn, I typed my message rapidly.
[It was like that yesterday]
[But today]
[Everyone’s too sleepy]
[So they said they’d just sleep haha]
Shiyeon sent four short messages in a row.
They had stayed up until dawn playing yesterday, but today they just went to sleep.
No different than the situation in our dark room.
After quickly typing four ‘kek’ and planning to leave a message wishing them good night without asking whether they stayed up or not.
[Yesterday]
[In another room]
[Did any boys come?]
Shiyeon’s series of messages made my expression stiffen for a moment.
What do you mean, Shiyeon? Why would boys come to the girls’ room?
As I began to type, “What kind of brats?” I came to my senses and hurriedly erased the words with the backspace key.
Internally, a thought flashed, ‘How dare those audacious guys,’ but with a hunch that this could just be an old memory, I settled for asking if it had been fun.
[Did you have fun?]
[Yeah]
[That’s a relief]
[Sleep early today]
Feeling reassured by Shiyeon’s positive reply, I added a few more sentences to conclude the message.
Anyway, it seemed like she was getting along well with her friends, unlike at the previous school.
[Yeah]
[Good night]
With the short three-letter message, I gently pressed the power button and plugged my smartphone into the charger.
As the faint light that had been shining solo in the black room turned off, a deep darkness settled in.
Since everyone had fallen asleep first, I didn’t even need the eye mask and earplugs that had been useful the day before.
I buried myself under the blanket as I tossed and turned and then simply closed my eyes.
Thus began the first schedule of the third day, the last itinerary of our study trip after breakfast.
Two hours at a large indoor sports center.
For someone like me who never even thought of visiting a sports center for fun, it became quite a fresh experience.
Hearing only the word sports, I thought, ‘Are they really taking middle schoolers to a gym?’ but the sports center was a place filled with various activities that all ages could enjoy.
Having never been there and not having any interest, I had no way of knowing.
Exciting music with poor sound quality played, and inside the sports center, there was no room to be quiet.
“What should I try…?”
Feeling it would be a waste of the entrance fee, I glanced around the sports center.
Archery, climbing, crossing the sky bridge, biking, darts, a basketball court…
Simply lined up, there was an enormous amount of content, but as I avoided any kind of activities that forced me to move my body intensely, there was not much I wanted to do.
As I strolled leisurely, like a bear just waking from winter hibernation, I spotted the shooting zone with a green sign.
Activities that didn’t require much intense movement, looked fun, and were safely enjoyable.
Having never shot a gun before, the former military personnel in my past life subconsciously shouted with confidence and urged me to try it.
Since I had come this far, I had to try something, rationalizing as I casually stepped into the waiting line.
Before long, people began to fill in behind me in the noisy atmosphere.
As I instinctively turned around, driven by habit, to check the presence behind me…
“Oh.”
“Oh.”
Coincidentally, the three boys standing in a group behind me were the trio of boys from my first year.
With our similar exclamations overlapping, Seonhyuk soon raised his hand to chest height with his palm facing up and said.
“Dongmaha…kku!”
“I can still reach your neck with my hand, you know?”
Predictably, he reached out to tease me, and in response to my prediction, he spat out the three letters, ‘Dongjae Mari Hi.’
Despite having grown taller compared to the unchanged me, his hands could still easily reach my neck when he extended them.
For a moment, however, in an effort to hold back his arms, Seonhyuk stretched his neck back due to the height difference.
Wow, he has certainly gotten stronger.
“Damn, why do you have to choke me right away when you speak? Did you come to shoot?”
“If you don’t say something to get hit, it should be fine, right?”
Even this could be considered part of the usual routine that I hadn’t experienced in a while, as he spat out complaints casually and asked if we had come to shoot.
I nonchalantly replied and glanced at the two guys behind him.
Compared to the sprightly Seonhyuk, Dongha and Taehyun looked completely drained and soaked in sweat since they hadn’t been here long.
“What’s wrong with you two?”
“There’s a ridiculous taekwondo station over there, and I didn’t participate.”
Seonhyuk vaguely pointed to a taekwondo machine, indirectly explaining the state of the two.
“No, ugh… it’s never-ending!”
“If I took that many punches and kicks, even a bear would be knocked out, damn…”
The two grumbled, seemingly frustrated with the taekwondo machine they had been fighting.
I realized through them that there were experiences that should not be tried, even out of curiosity, regardless of what had happened.
Where was Shiyeon? What class were you two in? How did you do on the midterm exams?
While we chatted about all these unfinished discussions, we finally arrived at our turn for the shooting experience.
A model handgun with an appropriate weight that wouldn’t strain even a middle school girl’s wrist.
Looking to the side, there was a guideboard that divided how to hold the gun and shoot into six steps.
So this is how you hold a handgun, I made a note as I followed the board’s instructions to grip the gun.
“You can’t shoot a gun if you can’t even do FPS?”
‘This kid, I must win.’
Since we were coming in one by one in the order we had stood, Seonhyuk, who was next to me, flared up at the middle schooler, comparing shooting a real gun with playing a shooting game, and I silently decided to show off my glorious shooting skills as a former soldier.
With one pull of the trigger, a mechanical shot rang out after a smooth pull of the trigger accompanied by white noise.
With another white noise, I pulled the trigger again.
Once again, the mechanical shot echoed back.
With a sudden seriousness that brought the focus back to shooting, I put forth my best effort, and the result was…
“Wow, you really suck.”
‘Damn.’
A humiliating defeat.
When it came to failure, it could only rank at the level of acorn height-reduction, and even that was shamefully lost to a middle-schooler by a narrow margin.
It seems that handguns suit me less than the K-2, indeed.
Dongha and Taehyun also didn’t do badly in terms of shooting scores.
Feeling humiliated by losing pathetically to a middle schooler, I was at a loss for words when Seonhyuk added fuel to the fire.
“That’s why you can’t even do FPS games.”
Seonhyuk didn’t stop there and provoked me further, chuckling smugly while adding something else to my gaming life about FPS games.
Typically, it’s a taboo for a female student to mention such things during a verbal spat with male students in Korea.
He casually opened his mouth, seemingly unconcerned about any of it.
“Yeah, you’ll be shooting a lot when you go to the military.”
“Oh, damn.”
In an instant, his expression stiffened, and he realized he had picked a fight he couldn’t win, lowering his head.
Disgusting and shabby as it was, winning was winning.
