Until Next Time
A few days after the June Mock Evaluation.
“Ugh... how many days has it been nothing but self-study?”
“Tell me about it. Like anyone actually wants to sit through class right now.”
“Can't be helped. There's barely any teachers at school.”
With the second-years off on their school trip and the first-years out on a field trip, the third-years—the ones who should have been in the thick of the fun—were left guarding an empty school, cycling between class and self-study.
“Alright, everyone, outside. Put on your shoes and gather at the athletic field.”
That offhand remark from their homeroom teacher, Jisu, left the students—who had been squirming in their seats out of sheer boredom—staring at her in bewilderment.
When she had passed the classroom and noticed the kids weren't budging, she circled back, her lips twitching.
“You've been stuck at your desks forever, so I figured you could use some fresh air. The whole third year is heading out. Get ready and come out, quickly.”
“...Yes, ma'am!”
So the school did understand how students felt after all.
They didn't even know where they were going yet, but simply being let outside was enough to lift everyone's spirits. The class poured out of the room in a rush.
Yeoncheong tidied her desk, rose belatedly from her seat, and started guessing the destination with Hasol and Nayun.
“Maybe the movie theater?”
“Ooh~ not a bad idea.”
There weren't many places that could accommodate a crowd this size all at once, so the theater was the first thing that came to mind.
“I wish. Isn't it too far, though? The showtimes would have to line up too.”
But as Hasol said, setting aside the cost for the moment, there simply wasn't a movie theater anywhere nearby. And the screening times were all over the place.
“Ah.”
Then, at Yeoncheong's short yelp as she changed into her shoes, Hasol peered at her anxiously.
“Your knee still hurts?”
“How hard did you drop to your knees for it to still be like this?”
Even Nayun, who sounded like she was just giving her grief, kept a worried eye on her friend as she rubbed her knee.
Nothing felt torn, and it wasn't swollen, so it wasn't a serious injury. But it must have hit the ground hard enough that the pain was lingering far longer than a simple bruise should.
“I'm fine. The school nurse lectured me so much I went to the hospital. She said it'll heal in a day or two as long as I don't overdo it.”
Like she'd said, no way a group this big was getting a ride anywhere—they'd be walking. That was the only thing slightly worrying her.
Maybe it was the unusually clear sky.
While the grade head teacher waited for every student to assemble, the three of them, now in their shoes and out on the athletic field, pointed at the mountain rising behind the school and cracked jokes.
“Hey, we're not going there, are we?”
“Pfft... as if~”
Yeoncheong and Hasol laughed it off—jokes should have some limits, after all. Nayun had only half-meant it too, so a smile still lingered on her lips.
“What? It's close. It's free. You've been sitting at your desk all day every day, so getting some exercise and fresh air would be perfe—ct?”
Her voice wavered as she counted the reasons off on her fingers, and her expression gradually hardened. The same went for Yeoncheong and Hasol, and for the friends standing around them.
With a sinking feeling of no way, Yeoncheong lifted her head. The moment she actually started listening to the grade head teacher's words, which she'd been letting wash over her in one ear and out the other—
“With weather this beautiful, doesn't studying cooped up in the classroom feel stifling?”
“Yes!”
The head teacher, having skillfully captured the students' attention, was wearing the most benevolent smile in the world.
“So after discussing it, the teachers decided we'd take a nice light hike—kill two birds with one stone: fresh air and exercise for you desk potatoes. Everyone's looking that way, so I trust you know where we're going?”
“......Yes?”
The words coming out of that mouth could not have been more heinous.
***
Among the students trudging up the well-maintained trail, grumbling the whole way—
“Nngh... nngh...”
One girl was letting out cries that had nothing to do with being out of breath. It was Yeoncheong, in poor condition thanks to her unlucky(?) injury.
Hasol and Nayun stepped aside for a moment to stay with their slowly climbing friend.
“Yeoncheong. Are you really okay?”
Hasol's worried gaze settled on her as she waved the classmates climbing up behind them on ahead. Yeoncheong, leaning against a tree, managed a light smile.
“Of course~ obviously.”
As if to prove she was still in fighting form, she gave her knee a few hearty pats—then winced, because she'd just smacked the sore spot.
“Ow...”
The school nurse had clearly told her not to push the knee, and before they'd even left the school grounds, anyone in pain had been told to sit out.
But she'd insisted on coming along because she hated being left alone in the classroom.
Under those circumstances, saying she was hurt and heading back down was simply not an option.
“Hey, you're hurt. Go back down. Right now.”
Nayun had come up behind the two of them, and she couldn't just stand by watching Yeoncheong fiddle with her knee every few steps.
The tense one-on-one standoff shifted the moment Hasol—who had been watching—sided with Nayun.
“Even you, Nayun?”
With the PE teacher away, even gym class had been replaced with self-study. And she of all people was saying this.
Doing her best to ignore the look of profound betrayal on her friend's face, Hasol—now armed with majority opinion—moved quickly.
“It's settled. I got permission from Teacher Jisu over text. We're going down.”
“We're already halfway up, and you want to just turn around? I can get down on my own, so you two keep going.”
While she'd reluctantly agreed to descend, she was stubbornly refusing any bothersome assistance—
“What are you all doing here?”
Suyeon and Seoha from Class 2 appeared, trailing behind Class 1.
They had started near the front of their class, but with all the breaks they'd taken, they'd somehow fallen back to where Class 2 was.
Which, as it turned out, was a perfect opportunity.
“Great timing. You two take her down. Technically speaking, she got hurt because of you two in the first place.”
“What's that supposed to mean?”
Seoha tilted her head, unable to follow the conversation—they were halfway up a mountain, and now suddenly she was supposed to go back down? Nayun's lips twitched.
“Look. No matter how I see it, if she climbs all the way to the top, that knee's only going to get worse.”
“No, it's really not that ba—hup... mmph...! Mmph!”
Hasol clamped a hand over the mouth spouting excuses that weren't even worth the name, then cheerfully dumped the stubborn girl into Suyeon and Seoha's laps with a smile.
“You can pretty much guess the situation, right? Whether it's out of guilt or whatever, she refuses point-blank to come down with us. So please, escort this stubborn mule to the infirmary.”
“Uh... sure.”
It had sounded like a request, but there was only one option on the table.
***
In the end, Seoha and Suyeon explained the situation to Class 2's homeroom teacher as well, and the three of them began their descent, moving against the current of students climbing toward the summit.
“Seriously... they're treating me like a full-on casualty.”
“Everyone was dying to skip the hike. Why are you so upset about getting out of it?”
Nearly every student in the grade—including Suyeon, who was asking—had balked at the hike. They'd all been turned down with accusations of faking it, but only after desperately trying to stay behind in the classroom claiming they were sick.
Even now, the students climbing up were shooting envious glances at the three heading down.
Yeoncheong, holding her friend's hand and taking slow steps, murmured.
“It's not like I'm going alone.”
On the hiking trail bustling with students, the two friends walking shoulder to shoulder didn't miss that small voice.
“Aww~ because we're here?”
Seoha's teasing question made her flinch. Flustered into a fit of coughing, Yeoncheong steadied her breathing before her lips parted.
“N-no, that's not it? I've got you two, and Hasol and Nayun too. We hardly ever get the chance to come somewhere like this all together... so it's just a shame, that's all.”
“Why would that be such a shame? We can all come back together sometime when the chance comes up.”
They could hit the mountains over summer break. Or heck, even after graduation.
When Yeoncheong wanted something, there was no way those two would refuse, and Hasol and Nayun didn't seem likely to sit it out either.
So that flimsy excuse was why she'd been so stubborn despite her injury.
Suyeon and Seoha kept teasing her about having scored such an adorable girlfriend as they continued down the mountain.
***
“Nnngh...”
“Are you seriously okay?”
Hasol and Nayun's judgment had been spot on.
Every step seemed to sharpen the pain—her gait had gone distinctly off since they started down the mountain.
She probably could have dragged herself to the summit somehow, but her body was in no shape for the trip back down.
“Obviously I'm fine~ How much farther to school, anyway? Let's hurry.”
Contrary to her words, one leg was moving in a distinctly wobbly fashion. Suyeon, who could no longer just stand by and watch, stopped Yeoncheong in her tracks and crouched down in front of her.
“Come on, hop on.”
“I told you I'm fine. Besides, I have my pride. How am I supposed to ride on a girl's back?”
If her usual behavior weren't one hundred percent boy through and through, that might be one thing.
Screeching kyaa kyaa at horror movies, and now throwing a fit over a piggyback ride—for someone who was practically a born woman at this point, it was truly ridiculous.
Seoha, watching from the side, apparently agreed.
Saying nothing, she got behind her and gave the stubborn girl's back a firm push.
“If it hurts, just get carried. I don't know how your precious pride is still alive.”
“Whoa—!”
Propelled forward, Yeoncheong had no choice but to land on Suyeon's back, and Suyeon—seizing her moment—gripped her thighs and stood up.
“Hey—! Wait—!”
“No such thing as 'wait' once you've already got me.”
Every time Yeoncheong squirmed to escape, Seoha steadied her from behind, and the three of them set off at a slow walk.
Suyeon snickered, her lips curling.
“Yeoncheong. You're kind of heavy, aren't you? Haven't you gained weight again?”
“I. Have. Not.”
“Then maybe your chest or your butt got bigger.”
“THAT'S even more of a no!”
The two of them teased her like a pair of cats batting around their prey.
Maybe it was because they were officially dating now—because they'd become something deeper—but the line that used to hold, barely, seemed to have loosened a little.
She was already dying of embarrassment at being carried on a girl's back, and with them whooping it up in front of her and behind her, a flicker of vengeance kindled in Yeoncheong's reddening eyes.
“...So that's how you want to play it, huh?”
She buried her face in Suyeon's hair and nuzzled, then brought her nose to the nape of her neck and sniffed—and the reaction was immediate.
“Hyack! That's cheating!”
“Then hurry up and put me down?”
“No... way...!”
A breath of air at her ear, hair tickling her nape—even from her carried position, the assault continued with everything she had.
But Suyeon, though she wobbled, refused to let go of Yeoncheong's legs.
And whose side should she take? Briefly left out of it all, Seoha reached out a hand, insisting she not be forgotten either.
“KYAAH! Wh-what are you touching!?”
“Your butt was in a convenient position.”
As if she hadn't known full well she was grabbing a butt.
Yeoncheong knew exactly what Seoha meant by asking why she'd touched it—and the fact that Seoha answered only the question as literally stated, all poise and composure, made her raise her voice.
“That's not! What I asked!”
“I told you before, remember? I take my share myself.”
So THAT'S what you meant by that?!
Meanwhile, once the girl on her back quieted down under Seoha's pats, Suyeon steadied herself again.
“Seoha, keep going. Get her back to school quick while I've got her pinned down.”
“Okay, got it.”
“Nooo! I'll behave and sit still, so stop touching meee!”
Despite her scream of surrender, Seoha's hands did not stop.
She's not resisting? She's just sitting there quietly?
There was no reason to stop.
And then...
It was about fifteen minutes after they returned with the carried Yeoncheong that the school nurse finally worked up some genuine fury and started shouting.
***
A few days later.
With the first- and second-years back from their field trip and school trip respectively, the school was once again brimming with that noise so particular to youth.
Yeoncheong lay sprawled across the desk in the club room, utterly wilted.
“Hot... don't wanna move... but I wanna move... but it's hot...”
The other two weren't much better. Just as Seoha was half checking out, holding a conversation neither of them would remember—
Suyeon, who had been slumped face-down on the desk like she'd fainted, bolted upright and shouted.
“GYAAAAH! I can't take this anymore! Let's buy a fan!”
A cramped club room with no air conditioner and no fan. As mid-June approached and the days grew hotter and hotter, this was the club president's salvation-bringing decree.