I hurriedly turned off the broadcast and cleaned up the debris scattered on the floor.
I bowed my head to the staff member who had come up to retrieve what was once a pillow.
“I’m sorry…”
The staff member brushed it off, apologizing instead for providing such flimsy pillows.
We agreed to settle the compensation during checkout, and I sighed in relief.
When I returned to the room, my four friends—Seo Yu-na, Lee Ha-ru, Han Seori, and Ma Ji-hye—waved at me excitedly.
“Can we sleep here tonight?”
“What about your room?”
“Our room is being watched over by Pindori.”
“Who’s Pindori?”
“The dolphin plushie. Hehe!”
I had no reason to refuse, and I actually preferred being with my friends.
I masked my excitement and indicated my acceptance by heading to the kitchen to fetch some snacks.
“Wasn’t it a pajama party at Na-me’s place with Ha-ru and Yu-na before?”
“That was already two years ago. Time flies.”
“How could you do it without us! We liked Na-me first, right, Ji-hye?”
“Yeah! But back then, Na-me was colder than now.”
“Me?”
I chewed on the dried fish, pondering what had changed in the last two years.
Well, I’ve grown about 10 cm taller and though I didn’t weigh much, it was definitely more than before.
My hair was the same, and my voice had become less squeaky than it used to be.
Yeah, they’re probably just saying random things since we’re elementary school kids.
“Seori, can you grab me some cola from the refrigerator over there?”
“Here.”
“Thanks! Who shook this? Why is it so hard to open?”
“Eh, Na-me, wait—!”
I casually twisted the bottle cap to let out the carbonation first.
Fizz-
“Did you think I couldn’t handle this?”
And just as I was about to take a sip, the foam suddenly began bubbling up.
I had poured out the carbonation first, so it shouldn’t overflow too badly…
Bubbling, bubbling, bubbling—
“Woah-!”
The cola erupted like lava from a volcano.
I tried to swallow it quickly to stop it, but there was a ton of foam!
“Na-me, we can’t spill on the bed sheets!”
“Spit it on the floor!”
Phew-hehh! Cough cough. Hic! What is this!
I spat the cola foam onto the floor.
It almost came out of my nose!
There was no way this much foam could come from just carbonation.
As I glared at the kids, the culprit finally spilled the beans.
Han Seori pulled a small cylindrical container out of her pocket.
“What’s that?”
“Mentos Time Bomb Edition. I was going to give it to the boys yesterday, but I forgot. Hehe…”
“Ahh, you scared me!”
There are truly all sorts of things in this world.
Reading the instructions revealed it worked by the outer shell of the Mentos melting due to body heat.
“Wait, weren’t you going to give it to him…?”
Ji-hye quietly asked Seori.
“Huh? Uhm… I don’t know?”
Seori jolted, brushing it off awkwardly.
The kids, including me, sensed something odd.
“Alright, Truth Game, Truth Game!”
“Hey, what’s going on! No, it’s not like that!”
“Yu-na, bring a pen!”
“Do we really have to do this?”
A pen was placed in the center.
“We’ll take turns asking one question each to whoever gets picked. I’ll go first.”
Lee Ha-ru glanced at me once, flicked her fingers, and set the pen spinning.
As the speed decreased, it seemed to stop on Yu-na, but then it slightly passed and pointed to Han Seori.
“Hey, this is rigged! It can’t be me on the first turn!”
“Well, since it’s the first time, I’ll go easy. Is there a boy you like in our class?”
“…”
“I’ve never seen Seori so silent…”
So much for truth.
“Seeing you quiet just means there’s an answer. You do like someone, don’t you?”
Nod—
“Ahhh! Han Seori is in love!”
“Hurry up! I’ve got questions for you guys too!”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
“Especially you, Yu-na, I’m definitely asking how far you’ve gone with Yoon Si-hoo.”
“Why only me…?”
But Seori’s wish went unfulfilled.
Second turn, third turn.
The pen cruelly kept pointing back to Han Seori.
“In our class, there’s someone tall, good at badminton, and lends stuff easily?”
“It’s Lee Ji-hyeok! You left your slab last time and worked with him.”
“Really?”
“…”
“Oh, not answering, huh? Should we spin again?”
Spin spin—
Seori anxiously bit her nails, pressing down on the pen as it spun.
“Wait a second. Guys, does it have to be this way… Huh? Why isn’t it stopping?”
Seori lifted her hand, but the pen spun on its own.
It stopped, only to start spinning again when she removed her hand.
“Yaaah!”
Han Seori freaked out, thinking it was a ghost.
However, she quickly regained her composure, tracing the mysterious force guiding the pen.
“You found me, Na-me.”
“I got caught.”
I retracted the aura projected from my pinky.
Seori realized this was all pre-planned.
She grabbed my shoulders and shook me wildly.
“You jerk, Na-me! I trusted you!”
“U-eh-e-e-e.”
“Hello? Is this Room 705?”
Taking advantage of the chaos, Yu-na called the boys’ room.
“Is Lee Ji-hyeok in the room?”
“What are you doing, Seo Yu-na?!”
“Not there? Went out for a walk? But you can’t go out now. Hey, the security guards are watching. Oh, okay.”
After hanging up, Yu-na relayed the conversation to us.
“Lee Ji-hyeok and Hong Jun went for a night walk by the beach! Guys, let’s go! We have to set up Han Seori with him!”
“There are security guards on the first floor.”
“They said we can sneak out through the convenience store window on the first floor—the instant noodle place.”
“Oh…!”
Ha-ru and Yu-na swayed with excitement.
Ji-hye, who typically obeyed the teacher, seemed a bit hesitant.
Seori clung to me pleadingly.
“The teacher said it’s dangerous at night, so we shouldn’t go outside. Right, Na-me?”
“Right, it’s dangerous, so we shouldn’t go out.”
“See? Our good kid Na-me said so—”
“But I won’t be in danger if I’m there!”
If there was one thing Seori was mistaken about, it was thinking I was a model student who listened to the teacher then or now.
I dashed to the entrance, put on my shoes, and placed my hands on my hips.
“Let’s go.”
Thus began the grand hotel escape operation.
I assigned Ji-hye the role of a lookout within the hotel.
If things went south, I could always ditch alone, but at least one person needed to stay in the hotel.
We crept quietly down to the lobby on the first floor.
Inhale!
I spotted the 4th-grade homeroom teachers entering the opposite elevator.
Fortune was on our side as they didn’t see us and the elevator doors closed first.
“Those are people from the academy, right?”
“Yeah. I think I saw them on the way to school; that’s for sure.”
Dodging the guards’ watchful eyes, we raced to the convenience store.
We could walk in confidently at a place like that.
We passed the snack and noodle aisles and entered the dining area, where there was a window leading out to the street.
“I’ll go first.”
I volunteered and hopped through the window.
Buoyed by my courage, the kids followed suit, exiting the convenience store in line.
Ha-ru called Hong Jun to ask their location.
“Near Sea Sound Bakery Cafe. Hmm, we’re about 200 meters away.”
“Twenty seconds to get there. Let’s run.”
As Yu-na would follow along, I held hands with Seori and Ha-ru and dashed ahead.
“Whoa, the speed limit here is 30! If we run this fast, we’ll get caught by the police!”
Crossing the eerie palm-lined park path, an expansive view opened up.
Whoooosh—
The refreshing sea breeze and salty air.
The night view of the ocean was distinctly different.
The black waves shimmered with orange streetlight reflections, occasionally spewing white foam.
We placed our shoes in the backpack we had prepared and walked barefoot on the soft sandy beach.
A café by the beach played trot music.
Before it, two boys were passing a soccer ball.
“Hey, you rascals! Sneaking out from the hotel without the teachers knowing?”
Hearing Yu-na’s lion-like roar, the kids turned around in surprise.
“Ah! You scared me! What? Seo Yu-na? I thought the teacher was looking for us!”
“What were you thinking sneaking out like this? Hehe.”
“If we get caught, then we get caught, right? Oh? Na-me is here too?”
“Yeah. Want to walk with us?”
Lee Ji-hyeok and Hong Jun gladly accepted our invitation.
Did they plan to come to the beach all along? They had brought their slippers!
“Hey, have you tried the Jungle Spirit ride?”
“Of course! That ride splashes everywhere!”
“Na-me’s wet hair was hilarious, haha.”
“Right? No matter how much you squeeze it, water keeps coming out!”
“But Na-me, why are you growing your hair long? Isn’t it uncomfortable?”
At Hong Jun’s question, I tidied my hair with my fingers.
“It suits me longer, doesn’t it? Oh, you like short hair more, huh, Jun? Okay, Ha-ru, Ji-hye, and Park Ji-soo have all confirmed.”
“W-what do you mean confirmed alone?”
“Why so defensive? Is there something going on here?”
“Not at all!”
For ten minutes, laughter echoed without pause.
We naturally gravitated toward Hong Jun, creating distance from Lee Ji-hyeok.
Soon, Seori and Ji-hyeok had matched their strides.
Here, I mixed in a little psychological trick.
“Didn’t it turn out to be a great night walk, guys?”
“Yeah! There are so many people, it doesn’t seem dangerous at all, and the night sea is so beautiful!”
That’s right, Yu-na, good job. Just keep responding like that.
“Look at those older girls over there. Their long shirts tied up are really pretty. They match the beach perfectly.”
“Where? Ooh.”
“Speaking of which, Seori is wearing pretty much the same thing, a crop top and jeans, right? No wonder your fashion is amazing today, you’d have missed out if you hadn’t come to the beach.”
“Ah, yeah.”
“Ji-hyeok, what about you?”
“Huh, me?”
“Yeah. Seori looks super pretty right now; what do you think?”
This was a strategy to associate the pretty girls we saw earlier with Seori.
Of course, feelings that weren’t there couldn’t be manufactured.
I wondered how he would respond as everyone held their breath.
“Yeah, I think she’s pretty.”
…!
Han Seori’s eyes widened like saucers.
Inside, she must have felt like popping a champagne bottle, although she couldn’t drink.
Since we ended up wandering a bit far, we turned back toward the Sea Sound Bakery Cafe.
I had focused so much on building up that our progress was slow.
I was starting to think that perhaps a confession today was too ambitious.
But wasn’t the fact that Seori was so happy enough to achieve our goal?
“Hey, Ji-hye.”
Breaking expectations, Seori was the first to speak.
She even omitted the last name.
She was confessing not just to me, but in front of our four friends?
The air shifted palpably sticky.
Hong Jun, realizing our plan, stepped back a bit.
Just then.
“Huh?”
We spotted two adults sitting on the terrace of the Sea Sound Bakery Cafe.
Current homeroom teacher Jacqueline Carroll and the teacher from 3rd grade, Shim Hyo-chan.
Just as the thought of hiding clicked in, our eyes met.
The teachers, while toasting, noticed us and were taken aback.
“Kids! Why are you here! How did you get out of the hotel!”
The scolding face of Shim Hyo-chan was flushed red as if he had been caught on a secret date.
