Chapter 495

I hurriedly turned off the broadcast and cleaned up the scattered debris on the floor.

I bowed my head to the staff member who came to retrieve what was once a pillow.

“I’m sorry…”

The staff member reassured me not to worry and even apologized for providing a pillow that wasn’t sturdy.

We agreed to settle the compensation when checking out, and I let out a sigh of relief.

When I returned to the room, my friends Seoyuna, Iharu, Hanseori, and Ji Hye welcomed me with waves.

“Can we stay here tonight?”

“What about your room?”

“Our room is being watched over by Pindori.”

“Who’s Pindori?”

“The dolphin plushie. Hehe!”

There was no reason to refuse, and I preferred to be with my friends.

I didn’t make it explicit but accepted by bringing some snacks from the kitchen.

“So you and Yuna had a pajama party at Name’s place back in the day?”

“Was that already two years ago? Time flies.”

“How could you do it without us?! We liked Name first, right, Ji Hye?”

“Yeah, but Name was colder back then.”

“Me?”

I thought about what had changed since two years ago while chewing on dried fish with my molars.

First, I had grown about 10 cm, and my weight had increased, though not by much.

My hair stayed the same, and my voice was less squeaky than before.

Well, I guess it’s just the noise kids make.

“Seori, can you grab me a cola from the fridge over there?”

“Here.”

“Thanks. Who shook this? Why is it so tight?”

“Oh no, Name, wait a minute…!”

I casually twisted the bottle cap to let out some of the carbonated pressure.

Szzzz-

“Hey, you thought I couldn’t do this?”

And just as I was about to drink, the bubbles suddenly erupted.

I figured it wouldn’t explode too badly since I had let out the carbonation first…

Bubbles bubbled and fizzed-

“UWWAHP-!”

The cola foam erupted like lava from a volcano.

I tried to swallow it to suppress it, but the amount of foam was overwhelming.

“Don’t spray it on Name’s bed sheets!”

“Spit it on the floor!”

“PUHEEEEK! Cough cough. What the heck is this?!”

I coughed up the cola foam that had filled my mouth onto the floor.

I almost had cola come up my nose.

There was no way that just carbonation could cause this much foam.

When I glared sternly at the kids, the culprit finally crumbled and confessed the truth.

Hanseori pulled a small cylinder out of her pocket.

“What’s that?”

“Mentos time bomb edition. I had set it aside for the boys yesterday but forgot to give it to anyone, hehe…”

“Ugh, you really scared me!”

There really are all sorts of items in this world.

Reading the instructions, it turned out it worked by dissolving the Mentos coating when the temperature rose due to body heat.

“Were you planning to give that to him…?”

Ji Hye asked Seori quietly.

“Huh? Uh, I don’t know?”

Seori was startled and quickly mumbled out a reply.

All the kids, including me, sensed something was off.

“Okay, truth game, truth game!”

“Hey, what’s that! No, it’s not like that!”

“Seoyuna, bring a pen!”

“Do we really have to go this far?”

The pen was placed in the center.

“We take turns asking the person the pen lands on a question. I’ll go first.”

Iharu glanced at me and flicked her fingers to spin the pen around.

As the speed gradually dwindled, it seemed to stop at Seoyuna, but then it slightly passed and pointed to Hanseori.

“Hey, that’s rigged! It doesn’t make sense that I get picked first!”

“Well, since it’s the first time, I’ll go easy on you. Is there a boy you like in our class or not?”

“…”

“I’ve never seen Seori so quiet before…”

Even my best friend Ji Hye was surprised.

“The silence indicates there’s an answer. You do like someone, don’t you?”

Nod-

“AAAAAH! Hanseori is cheeky!”

“Hurry up! I have questions to ask you guys too!”

“Yes, yes, go ahead.”

“Especially you, Seoyuna, I’ll be asking you about how far you’ve gone with Shin Si Hoo, so I’m really looking forward to it.”

“Why me…?”

However, Hanseori’s wish was not fulfilled.

The second time, the third time.

The pen frustratingly continued to point at Hanseori.

“In our class, tall, good at badminton, and lends out stuff?”

“It’s Jihyuk! You left the slate last time and used it with Jihyuk.”

“Is that right?”

“…”

“Oh, you’re not answering. Should we spin again?”

Spinning-

Hanseori fidgeted nervously, biting her nails, and pressed down on the turning pen with her palm.

“Wait just a moment. Guys, do we really need to… huh? Why isn’t it stopping?”

When Seori removed her hand, the pen continued spinning wildly.

Even if it stopped completely and she removed her hand, the same thing happened.

“AAAH!”

Hanseori shrieked, thinking it was a ghost.

But suddenly the girl regained her composure and traced the subtle force acting on the pen.

“Name?”

“Gotcha.”

I withdrew the aura I had manifested from my pinky finger.

Seori realized that this had been a set-up from the start.

She grabbed my shoulders with both hands and shook me violently.

“Hey, Name! I thought I could trust you!”

“Uh. E. E. E.”

“Hello. Is this room 705?”

Seoyuna seized the opportunity and called the boys’ room.

“Is Jihyuk in there?”

“What are you doing, Seoyuna!”

“He’s not there? Did he go out for a walk? No, he can’t go outside right now. The security guards are on watch. Oh, uh-huh.”

After ending the call, Seoyuna shared the conversation she had with us.

“Jihyuk and Hongjun went for a night walk by the beach! Guys, let’s go out! We have to set up Hanseori and Jihyuk!”

“But there are security guards on the first floor.”

“But they said we could slip out the window of the convenience store on the first floor. The place where they eat cup ramen.”

“Oh…!”

Iharu and Seoyuna bounced with excitement.

Ji Hye, who listened to the teacher, seemed a bit hesitant.

Hanseori clung to me and pleaded.

“The teacher said it’s dangerous at night, so we shouldn’t go outside the hotel, right? Right, Name?”

“Yeah, it’s dangerous, so we shouldn’t go outside.”

“See, our good child Name is saying that—”

“But it’s not dangerous if I’m there, right?”

If there’s one misconception that Hanseori has, it’s that I’ve never been a good student who listens to the teacher’s words, whether in the past or present.

I rushed to the entrance, put on my shoes, and placed my hands on my hips.

“Let’s go.”

Thus, the hotel escape operation commenced.

I assigned Ji Hye the role of surveillance inside the hotel.

In case something happened, I could slip away alone, and at least one person needed to remain in the hotel.

We tiptoed down to the first-floor lobby.

“Oops!”

I saw the fourth-grade teachers taking the elevator on the opposite side.

Lucky for us, they didn’t see us, and the elevator doors closed first.

“I think those people are from the academy, right?”

“Yeah. I think I saw them when we were going to school; it’s definitely them.”

We dodged the guards and dashed toward the convenience store.

It wouldn’t be a problem to walk boldly to the convenience store.

We passed the snack and ramen section and entered the dining area, where there was a window leading directly to the outer street.

“I’ll go first.”

I hopped over the window.

Gaining confidence, the kids followed suit, exiting the convenience store in a line.

Iharu called Hongjun to ask for their location.

“By the beachside bakery café. Hmm, it’s about 200 meters away from here.”

“We can get there in 20 seconds. Let’s run!”

Seoyuna would naturally follow well, so I grabbed Seori and Iharu’s hands and we dashed off.

“Whoa! The speed limit here is 30! If you run too fast, you’ll get caught by the police!”

Crossing the eerie palm tree park path revealed an open landscape.

The sound of the refreshing ocean breeze and salty air greeted us.

The night view of the sea was quite different.

The black waves shimmered with the orange light of the streetlamps and occasionally spat white foam.

We put our shoes into the bag we had brought and walked barefoot on the fine sandy beach.

A café by the beach played trot music.

In front of it, two boys were playing catch with a soccer ball.

“Hey, you brats! Sneaking out of the hotel without the teacher knowing?”

Hearing Seoyuna’s roar, the kids turned around in shock.

“Whoa! It’s you, Seoyuna! I thought the teacher was coming to find us.”

“What were you thinking coming out here if you got caught, huh?”

“If we get caught, we get caught. Right? Name’s here too?”

“Yeah. Want to take a walk together?”

Jihyuk and Hongjun readily accepted our proposal.

Had they planned to come to the beach from the start, they had brought slippers with them.

“Hey, want to try Spirit of the Jungle?”

“Of course, I have! It spills water like crazy.”

“Seeing Name’s hair get soaked was really funny, haha.”

“Yeah, it just kept dripping, which was hilarious.”

“But Name, why do you keep growing your hair? Isn’t it uncomfortable?”

At Hongjun’s question, I brushed my hair with my fingers and replied.

“Doesn’t long hair suit me better? Oh, so Jun prefers short hair, huh? Okay, I have three confirmations: Iharu, Ji Hye, and Park Jisoo.”

“What, wa—why are you checking alone!”

“Why are you so caught off guard? Is there something going on here?”

“No way.”

For ten minutes, laughter never ceased for a moment.

We naturally gravitated towards Hongjun, creating distance from Jihyuk.

Soon, Hanseori and Jihyuk found their steps matching side by side.

I decided to add a little psychological skill here.

“Don’t you think it was a good idea to come out for a night walk, guys?”

“Yeah! There are lots of people around, so it doesn’t seem dangerous, and the night sea is so beautiful!”

Yes, Seoyuna, keep reacting like that from the side.

“Look at those older girls over there. Their long clothes tied up as crop tops look really pretty. It suits the beach perfectly.”

“Where? Oh wow.”

“By the way, Seori, you’re wearing a crop top and light jeans too, right? No wonder you look stylish today. It would’ve been a disaster if we hadn’t come to the beach.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Jihyuk, what about you?”

“Huh, me?”

“Yeah. Seori is currently looking super pretty; what do you think?”

This was meant to draw a comparison between the pretty girls I had seen earlier and Hanseori.

Of course, you can’t spark feelings that never existed.

We all held our breath as we waited for his response.

“Yeah, I think she’s pretty.”

“…!”

Hanseori’s eyes widened as if they were about to pop out.

She must have felt like champagne was bursting inside her, even if she couldn’t drink it.

Feeling we had walked quite a distance, we turned back toward the beachside café.

It seemed that focusing too much on the buildup had slowed our progress.

I thought it might be too much to see a confession today.

However, wasn’t it enough to achieve the purpose with Hanseori being this happy?

“Hey, Jihyuk.”

Breaking the unexpected silence, Hanseori was the first to speak.

She even omitted the surname completely.

Was she really confessing in front of not just the two of them, but four friends watching?

The atmosphere changed subtly.

Only then did Hongjun step back, realizing our plan.

At that moment.

“Uh?”

We spotted a couple sitting on the terrace of the beachside café.

Current homeroom teacher Jacqueline Carroll and the teacher from our third grade, Shim Hyo Chan.

The instant I thought we had to hide, our eyes met.

The teachers, who had been toasting, looked at us in shock.

“Kids! Why are you here! H-how did you get out of the hotel?”

The face of Shim Hyo Chan, who was raising his voice, was flushed red.

He looked as if he had been caught sneaking out on a date like a student.