The Wish Coupon Denial Incident
Just how red could a face get? Yeoncheong's blush deepened with every jab from her friends, who had completely lost their composure.
Unable to bear it a second longer, she finally attempted an escape.
"Kyaaah! Yeoncheong!"
"We're not on the first floor!"
"That crazy girl! Somebody grab her, NOW!!!"
She must have been embarrassment incarnate. Everyone had to pile on to stop Yeoncheong, who was making a mad dash for the window — the one much closer than the door.
After talking down a friend who, drenched in sweat on an already sweltering day, had been about to make a very dangerous choice, Hasol shouted in genuine fury.
"You guys! What if Yeoncheong had actually jumped?!"
Rare for her, even Seoha seized the moment to pile on the teasing. And Hasol hadn't just refused to get swept up in it — she'd gone so far as to get angry on Yeoncheong's behalf instead.
That's Hasol for you, Yeoncheong thought, genuinely moved.
"Hey! I can't believe I put up with every single one of this kid's antics!"
Moved by Hasol, huh...
"Reckless as she is, she's also ridiculously easy to tease!"
Moved...?
"You've got to keep your boundaries in check if you want her to keep putting up with you!"
It flowed so naturally that Yeoncheong had just listened quietly. But somewhere in the middle of what sounded like a scolding for the friends who'd crossed the line, a strange amount of damage had snuck in — aimed squarely at her.
"Um... Hasol?"
At the sound of her name, Hasol flinched hard, realizing her mistake a beat too late.
One look at her reaction, and there was no need to ask anything further.
"Khaaahk...!"
Overwhelmed by a crushing sense of betrayal, Yeoncheong bolted once more. Through the door, this time. The safe route.
The three of them, who had only meant to give her one good scolding and be done with it, turned to stare at Hasol. She scratched her head and laughed awkwardly.
Since the two of them weren't her only classmates, Yeoncheong spent the afternoon seated between Siyeon and Seobin.
But after school, when everyone gathered to study together, there was no hiding forever.
Hasol had glued herself to the seat on the right — the one Seoha always claimed — kneading Yeoncheong's shoulders and doing her level best to soothe her sulking friend's mood.
"Yeoncheong~ are you really not going to say a single word? That just makes me sad..."
"......I'll let it slide. This once."
Had time softened things a little? Or had the full-force massage won her over?
Either way, when her friend — who hadn't so much as glanced at her since lunch — granted forgiveness, Hasol beamed from ear to ear.
"That's our Yeoncheong. Pretty and kind, with a heart to match."
"Save the empty flattery."
"Empty? Can't you feel how completely full my sincerity is?"
Perhaps hoping to restore her dented trust score on the spot, she unleashed a torrent of compliments.
Yeoncheong told her to knock it off, but the corners of her mouth were betrayingly twitching. Nayun jutted her lips out and grumbled.
"Wow... if that were me, would you really let it slide that easily?"
"Right. Yeoncheong's still playing favorites."
Suyeon piled on, and even Seoha, who had been quietly studying, set down her pen and turned to look at her — creating an atmosphere where an answer was more or less mandatory.
Truthfully, Yeoncheong had plenty to say on the subject.
They liked to throw "friend discrimination" at her whenever it left her flailing, but even among friends, every person was different. It would be strange if she treated them all exactly the same.
In other words — back in the day, she might have dumbly rolled over and accepted it. But now she could push back, with evidence.
Actions spoke louder than words.
Determined to land a proper counterblow on Suyeon, Yeoncheong wrapped her arm around Hasol's waist beside her.
"You want proof I don't discriminate between my friends? Then watch carefully."
"..."
"..."
In that instant, a dead silence fell over the club room, and the air turned so cold it was hard to believe it was summer.
Apparently, no one had signed off on this. Hasol, seated on the right, slid smoothly out of the arm around her waist and fled to Nayun's side across the table.
Suyeon, on the left, did the opposite — closing the distance to cut off any escape. Seoha filled the vacated seat, and the pincer pressure closed in from both sides.
"Yeoncheong."
"Y-yes, ma'am."
The atmosphere alone had forced honorifics out of her without her noticing.
She flinched as a hand began to creep upward. Seeing this, Seoha gave her shoulder a few light, gentle pats.
"Yeoncheong. What I approved goes up to Suyeon. Best friends are fine, but anything beyond that is out. You understand?"
"Understood. I will never forget it."
Yeoncheong nodded her head up and down with fervent enthusiasm.
This kind of joke... I don't think I could survive doing it twice.
Once the ruckus died down, Yeoncheong and her friends seemed to return to their finals studying — but focus, once broken, was hard to recover.
"Agh! Would you just drop it already!"
"Not a chance. A bet is a bet — you showed me your panties, so I have to hold up my end of the deal too."
Winning is winning, apparently.
Yeoncheong was locked in an ongoing argument with Nayun, who kept angling the fan squarely in her direction.
"Get your facts straight! All you saw was the strap!"
"Oh? You really think that's all that showed?"
"GRAAAH! STOOOP! Quit talking about my panties already!"
She'd seemed thoroughly aggrieved up until lunch... and now she was cheerfully getting verbally beaten up all over again.
Her truly astonishing recovery speed, noted once more. It was one of the main reasons hitting her felt so satisfying.
Perhaps it was a trait unique to this particular set of four friends. Any normal person would have gotten genuinely angry after being pranked this many times, but for all her dramatic reactions, Yeoncheong never actually got serious about it.
Hasol licked her lips as she tried to separate the two friends gearing up for another round of WWE.
"It's this hot, and you want to fight while reeking of sweat?"
"If you don't want to study, at least talk about something constructive. Like what you're doing for fun after finals, or where to go over break. Things like that."
The two roughhousing troublemakers were apparently wrecking everyone's concentration alike.
Watching Suyeon set down her pen with a solemn well, she has a point expression, Yeoncheong and Nayun wore identical looks of dumbfounded disbelief.
"How is any of that 'constructive'? You just want to lock in plans to go play."
"Exactly. Look at her, fishing for excuses to hang out."
Caught red-handed, Suyeon scratched her cheek sheepishly for about half a second — then slammed her palm on the desk and committed to the shamelessness even harder.
"Fine! Yes, I want to make plans. Everything in life goes better with a reward attached, doesn't it?"
It was true that rewards made the grind easier. Hard to argue with that.
Overwhelmed by Suyeon's aggressive energy, Yeoncheong leaned back and asked carefully.
"Well... do you have somewhere in mind?"
As if she'd been waiting for exactly that question, Suyeon's mismatched eyes lit up and sparkled.
"Obviously! There's the bowling alley, escape room cafés... For break, an amusement park or a water park. We've already done the beach, so somewhere like a mountain valley would be nice too... Anyway, just the places we haven't been yet — there are THIS many!"
The brief pause mid-list suggested she'd simply recited whatever came to mind on the spot.
Wherever they went was fine by her. What mattered wasn't where they went, but who they went with.
Still, the sheer number of places she wanted to visit was plain to see, and between the exhaustion she could already feel coming and the worry creeping in ahead of it, Yeoncheong couldn't help herself.
Hasol must have been thinking the exact same thing, because Yeoncheong voiced her question without missing a single syllable.
"...You're not planning to go to ALL of them, are you?"
"Oh, come on~ We're third-years now. These are candidate destinations. That's all I'm saying."
Waving her hands, Suyeon insisted that going to every single one was impossible — it wasn't exactly pocket change, and with college entrance prep, they'd be busy even over break.
Then Seoha, who had been listening to the conversation in silence, parted her lips.
"Then how about this break... you all come visit our villa?"
At a topic everyone had completely forgotten about—
"THE VILLA!?"
The eyes of Yeoncheong and the rest lit up at once.
Come to think of it, back at the start of the year—
When Yeoncheong had told her to stop treating her house like a personal hangout, Seoha had brought up her family's villa.
It had drawn an equally heated reaction back then, too. Suyeon had even suggested going there to play, but with none of them meeting up over the break afterward, the whole thing had fizzled out on its own.
As if those memories were surfacing one by one, Suyeon's eyes went round and her voice rose.
"Oh, right~! We HAVE to go there at least once!"
"Where was it again? Did you ever tell us?"
"Man. Now a villa is something I'm curious about."
There was no telling how many times they'd meet over break, or how many outings they'd manage. But it was already all but decided that one of those trips would be to Seoha's villa.
Yeoncheong was all for it too.
Going anywhere and doing anything cost money, but a friend's villa meant they could skip the lodging fees. The bonus experience of living it up in a rich family's vacation home was just icing on the cake.
Where was the villa? Could they really use it however they liked? How many rooms did it have? Was there maybe even a pool? And so on.
Amid the flood of questions, Seoha — feeling everyone's positive energy in her very skin — smiled slyly.
"So then. This break, we're really going to my villa?"
"Obviously! When should we do it? One night, two days? Two nights, three days? Or... let's go BIG — three nights, four days!?"
She was clearly beside herself with anticipation. Suyeon had already whipped out her phone, ready to set the schedule on the spot.
Nayun calmed down her half-unhinged friend and licked her lips.
"Hey, hey. We'll figure that out slowly after finals."
"Yeah. We all need to sync up our schedules first, remember?"
"Ahaha... no, it's just~ I'm worried it'll get brushed under the rug again like last time. That's all."
Just as Suyeon scratched her head sheepishly, Seoha turned her gaze on Yeoncheong, who was teasing her for making such a fuss when break was still ages away.
"Yeoncheong. A wish coupon can be used anytime, anywhere — right?"
"Of course. Planning to use it on the trip?"
When Seoha gave a small nod, letting her know that was exactly the case, Yeoncheong asked again.
"Though... can I ask what it is?"
Knowing Seoha, the wish was bound to be anything but ordinary — she only asked so she could brace herself. But whatever it was, Seoha sure was taking her time.
As her friend's deliberation stretched on, Yeoncheong, worried she'd put her on the spot, hurried to add, "Oh. If it's hard to say, you don't have to tell me."
Frankly...
Seoha didn't want to tell her. Tell her, and the answer would be a 100% guaranteed no.
And yet, at the same time, she was curious.
Would Yeoncheong cry out in flat refusal? Or would embarrassment swallow her whole and leave her shriveled up, just like she'd been at lunch?
After a long internal debate, Seoha concluded that even if she told her, she could still talk her way around it — and grinned.
"A. Maid. Outfit."
"......Huh?"
Seoha's pronunciation, each syllable delivered crisp and distinct, was so precise that Suyeon, Hasol, and Nayun — who had been giggling among themselves — all turned to look at the two of them at once.
But Yeoncheong, judging that she'd misheard... no, wanting desperately to believe she'd misheard, asked her to repeat it. And Seoha obligingly did. Hearing it twice wouldn't change anything, after all.
"On the trip, wear a maid outfit for us. Even better if you act like a real maid while you're at it."
"Hmm... so I did hear that right..."
Yeoncheong nodded her head with the weary resignation of the condemned.
The good news: her hearing was perfectly fine. The bad news: the contents of the wish coupon were utterly absurd.
And Seoha's reaction — the one she'd been so curious about?
"The wish coupon is VOID! It can't be used! DENIED! DENIIIIIED~!!!"
It was the first-ever declaration of refusal to honor a wish coupon.