Train Trip on the Algorithm (2)
Time really flies. I only streamed once, and suddenly it’s already Friday—the day we leave for the trip. The itinerary said we’d be riding the Haerang train, touring all over the country for three days and two nights. I arrived at the meeting spot a full hour early. I was so nervous and excited that I barely slept. Right now I’m half-asleep, half-awake, but my brain is buzzing with anticipation. I’m not even sure what state that counts as. Anyway, that’s how I felt while I waited.
“Hmm…”
I’d been waiting over ten minutes and still no one showed up. I checked my reflection in the mirror. I’d prepared thoroughly. Thermal underwear, thick pants, a long-sleeve shirt, a beige jacket with a hood, and finally my long padded coat—fully armored against the cold. I’d packed everything I could think of too: toothbrush, toothpaste, comfy clothes, slippers, socks, underwear, phone charger, power bank. I double-checked last night and again this morning. If Mom had seen my bag she would’ve gone, “Seon-a~ where’s your wallet? That’s the most important thing!” But I’m a twenty-first-century person. A very smart one. Everything’s already in my phone. This is the age where your phone can do it all. Heh-heh-heh. Too bad she didn’t get to inspect it.
“When are they getting here…?”
Forty-eight minutes left. Still no sign of either of them. I’d confirmed yesterday—they promised they’d come. They didn’t oversleep, did they? I should call. I started with Pyeongjipja.
“Hello? Pyeong-nim, where are you?”
“Um… I can see you, Seon-a-nim.”
“Oh!! Where?”
“The person in the padded coat and hat… carrying a black backpack. Is that you?”
“Yeah, that’s me!! Where are you?”
“If you look up…”
“Up…?”
Oh! There she is. I waved. Pyeongjipja waved back, but only a tiny, restrained little flick of her hand instead of the big sweeping motion I used. I dashed straight over to her.
“Pyeong-nim! Pyeong-nim…!! Whoa.”
Pyeongjipja is seriously impressive. She’d said it was freezing today, yet she showed up without a padded coat. The moment I saw her I blurted out, “Aren’t you cold?”
“Me? I’m fine. Hello.”
“Whoa!! That’s insane.”
How is she not cold? She was wearing slim jeans and a cute jacket with fluffy fleece lining on the sleeves—the kind of thing only a pretty girl could pull off. It suited her perfectly. But something else was bothering me. I know a few things about myself. I’m oblivious, so I end up saying things at the worst possible moments. And once something gets stuck in my head, I fixate on it. Mom, Dad, and even my doctor tried to teach me otherwise, but it never really sticks. It just keeps looping in my brain, dozens, hundreds of times. That’s what people call “brain rot,” right? For me it’s the default setting. If I get hooked on a certain brand of ramen, I’ll eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a whole month. If I find a funny action funny, I’ll repeat it until I’m sick of it. Same with jokes—I’ll parrot them like a broken record. Even when I realize it’s brain rot, the little devil on my shoulder whispers, “Do it.” How is a weak human like me supposed to resist that?
Anyway, right now my brain had latched onto “chest.” It was hilarious, fun, and I wasn’t getting tired of it yet. The reason it popped into my head now was because she looked different from last summer. Subtly different. This wasn’t the Pyeongjipja I remembered. I openly scanned her up and down.
“What are you doing?”
“Huh?”
By the time I snapped out of it, my hand was already reaching for her chest. The devil had won. I touched it!! But…
“…”
“Pyeong-nim, you got bigger.”
“It’s always been this size.”
“Ehh… it used to be smaller, though.”
Pyeongjipja had more volume than I’d expected. That couldn’t be right. She was lying. It had to be… what do you call it? Padding. Yeah, padding. No way. With that face and actual boobs too? Impossible. Our Pyeongjipja wouldn’t do that. Our Pyeongjipja definitely has a tiny chest and is still a virgin. My fantasy shattered with a loud crack.
“No way. No, no… Our Pyeongjipja is…”
“What exactly do you think of me?!”
“Uh… completely flat…”
“I’m not.”
“That can’t be…”
I touched again. It had to be the jacket. Obviously the jacket. I slipped my hand inside.
“A-Ah… huh? Whaaaaat!! Kyaaaaah!!”
“It’s real…”
“Wh-what are you doing?!”
“It really was real…”
Wait—Pyeongjipja was actually bigger than Maru. Let’s re-rank them: Moddeok, Queen of Chests. Then me. Then Pyeongjipja. Pyeongjipja wasn’t flat at all. I’d looked up how to measure cup sizes out of curiosity once. They say you judge by how much fits in your palm. Pyeongjipja was the king of A cups. Not AAA or AA—just straight A. Disappointing. At this size… if the baby’s normal and eats three meals a day, maybe one feeding could be covered by breast milk? If the kid eats a lot, proper management might still work. She was Phone-Pyeong-nim after all.
“Phone-Pyeong-nim…”
“Seriously, what are you doing?!”
“Phone-Pyeong-nim…”
My mental image crumbled without me realizing it. Who exactly had I been imagining as Pyeongjipja all this time? What version of her had I built an imaginary friendship with? Ugh. She probably laughed at me behind my back whenever I talked about her, right?
“Wh-why are you like this, Seon-a-nim? Seon-a-nim?”
“It’s nothing… When I called you Pyeong-nim, you were totally looking down on me, weren’t you?”
“Looking down on you? Me? Why would I?”
“You snorted and went, ‘What an idiot,’ right?”
“No, I didn’t. At all. Who—who would do that?”
“Really?”
“Huh…? Yes! See? I told you I’m not flat!”
“Pfft-hahaha!”
What an angel. She really had believed in me!! Of course she wouldn’t look down on me. My inferiority complex almost flared up again, but no way. Absolutely not!!
“Then let’s go get coffee!! We still have time!!”
“Oh… okay.”
“We can drink coffee while we wait for Moddeok-nim to arrive… Ah! What’s your real name, Pyeong-nim?”
I couldn’t keep calling her Pyeong-nim or Merona-nim forever. That would be embarrassing. What would people around us think? “Pyeong-nim? What’s that supposed to mean? Merona? What?” I should use her actual name. We were going on a trip together, after all.
“Um… My name is Chae Jihyun.”
“Oh!! Right, I remember now!! I’m Yoo Seon-a!!”
“…Yes.”
We headed to a café together. It was really warm inside.
“Ugh… it’s hot… Look, I was freezing so I wore all this. Pretty wild, right?”
I rolled up my pant leg to show the gray thermal underwear. Pyeongjipja’s eyes went wide.
“You’re wearing a lot of layers.”
“Yeah. They said it’d be cold today, so I put all this on. That’s why I’m super hot right now.”
“If you weren’t hot after wearing that, that would’ve been impressive too.”
“Phew… anyway.”
I set my bag down and took off the padded coat. Once it was off, Pyeongjipja frowned at me.
“Wait… how many layers are you actually wearing?”
“Me? Thermal underwear, regular clothes, this jacket, and the coat… four layers.”
“Oh… I see…”
After that, while sipping coffee, I stared at her. I thought we were super close, but now that I had to actually talk, it felt awkward. What should I even say? I’ve never done small talk before, so I have no idea how to keep a conversation going.
“Um… what should I talk about…”
I really didn’t know. What would be a good topic? Something…
“I’m so excited for the trip!!”
“Me too.”
“Hmm…”
Stuck again. Maybe this was a bad idea? Conversations are hard. Okay, retry. Pyeong-nim, let’s go?
“The food on the trip’s gonna be good, right? Should we take pictures?”
“I… uh… I’m not sure.”
“I’m definitely taking pictures. Let’s take lots together!!”
“Oh… sure.”
Failed to continue again. Sigh… conversations are hard. But practice makes perfect. I can do this. Don’t aim too high. Just twice. Prove that Pyeongjipja and I are comfortable with each other. If I keep choking like this, she’ll definitely get suspicious. One more try…!!
“Pyeong-nim, you’re pretty.”
“Thank you.”
“What about me?”
“You’re pretty too.”
“…Oh.”
Don’t get greedy!! Two in a row—success!! Let’s go for three. What topic can keep it going for three exchanges? Hmm… oh! “Are we filming anything?”
“Filming?”
“How was the vlog last time? The phone vlog.”
“That one was good. It was just a short, but it got 100k views. Phone unboxing videos are popular. We should do one. How do you want to handle it?”
“Uh… food?”
“Food? Oh!! Like a day-one and day-two vlog… eat food on day one, review it, that kind of thing? I think it’ll turn out pretty well. We can do it.”
“Oh… just the two of us?”
“Together? I’m fine with that. I wasn’t planning to show faces anyway… Ah. Should we turn the camera on now?”
Wait—we just had four exchanges. Five might be possible!!
“Do you have a camera?”
“I’ve got my phone. And an SSD, so it’s plenty. I can edit right away too. Look…”
Pyeongjipja peeked her laptop out of her bag.
“I brought my laptop too, so I can edit on the spot.”
“What about clothes? Did you pack any?”
“Ahaha. I’ve got everything. I packed it all.”
“Oh… got it.”
“So should we do it? Want to turn the switch on? If we film, we’ll definitely have a video.”
“Oh… wait a second. I…”
That was already the eighth exchange. Ten might actually be doable?! I had to choose carefully. If I picked right here, I could reach ten.
“Should we start filming from now?”
“If we’re doing it, starting now is better. It’ll feel more immersive than beginning right when the train does.”
“Then we upload right after filming?”
“No, we should upload later. If we post immediately, there’s a tiny chance—probably not, but still—a viewer might happen to be on the same train. I was thinking of waiting two weeks or maybe a month before uploading.”
“Aha! Then…”
Pyeongjipja was rummaging for her phone when it hit me.
“No. Forget it. We came here to travel! Not to work. Put the phone away!! Let’s just enjoy the trip.”
“Oh…”
It’s a trip. We should relax and have fun! If we start thinking about work, it’ll never end. Let’s just enjoy ourselves. But for some reason Pyeongjipja looked a little down.
“Why… what’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing. Nothing. Let’s have fun… yeah.”
“Then let’s have a good time!!”
“Okay…”
I think I did pretty well with the conversation. I kept it going fourteen whole times. How am I this good? Good job, Yoo Seon-a. Heh-heh-heh. If I keep this up, conversations won’t be a problem at all!! I’m really looking forward to this trip!