School Trip, Math Trip
The school trip to Jeju had gotten off to a fine start at Yongduam Rock, with the wide-open sea stretching out before them.
After lunch at a restaurant booked well in advance, the fleet of buses made its way to the Jeju 4·3 Peace Park & Memorial Hall.
Suyeon hopped down from the bus, landed on both feet, and let her shoulders sag.
"Ahh... not the heavy stuff right out of the gate..."
Teacher Jisu, who had been cross-checking the headcount with Hasol, the class president, called Suyeon over.
"Suyeon, you were the last one out, right?"
"Yes, ma'am."
The homeroom teacher, having confirmed the numbers against Hasol's list, added a remark.
"And remember, we didn't come here just to have fun. You all know what a school trip means, don't you?"
"Ugh. You heard that?"
"Of course I heard it. Yours was the loudest voice out here. That's not something you say when we've come all the way to a place like this."
The memorial hall had been built so that the tragedy would never be forgotten. When Teacher Jisu painted Suyeon as the villain of the piece, Suyeon darted sideways with the speed of a startled hare, protesting her innocence.
"Ah, Ms. Jisu! It's not that I didn't want to come — I just meant it's a bit of a shame to start with this. That's all I meant, really!"
"Okay, okay, I get it. So go back to the rear and make sure none of the students wander off."
"...Yes, ma'am."
Despite the obedient answer, Suyeon trudged back to the tail end of the group with a sulky glare.
Once the full headcount was confirmed in front of the memorial hall and the students received a brief introduction, free viewing time was finally granted — but only after they'd been told exactly when to return.
It was material covered in their Korean history classes. Around this time every year, a documentary on the subject would air somewhere on television, and now and then it even turned up on exam papers. Yet, as with most history, the whole affair had always carried a certain distance from their lives.
But coming in person to the very land where the massacre had taken place and seeing the exhibits with their own eyes closed that distance. It left them with a great deal to think about.
Seoha and the ever-diligent Hasol, naturally — but even Nayun, who had never been on friendly terms with studying, and even the grumbling Suyeon found themselves quietly and carefully touring the exhibits before they knew it.
For a student body riding high on excitement, it was a first stop that served as a reminder: this trip was not merely a vacation.
The viewing came to an end, and in the brief interval before they returned to the buses—
Suyeon popped out from behind. Yeoncheong, completely unprepared, flinched.
"Eek— Baek Suyeon, do you want to die?"
"Keeping watch over everyone from the very back the whole time is so boring, I'm telling you."
Yeoncheong stole a glance at Teacher Jisu, who was walking up at the front of the line.
"Won't you get scolded again?"
"Don't worry. Nayun's covering for me for a bit."
And just as she said, Nayun was indeed at the rear, keeping an eye out for any classmates straying off course.
"So anyway, what did you come over here for?"
"I told you, I was just bored."
"Is that really the only reason?"
There was still a trace of doubt in Yeoncheong's voice, and Suyeon only looked exasperated.
On trips like this, teachers tended to lean heavily on the class president and vice president. She might not have been called on as often as class president Hasol, but as vice president, Suyeon was summoned plenty too. Considering her personality — checking in on her friends whether or not there was anything actually wrong — it wasn't the least bit strange.
"What, do you think I only show up when there's a job to do? I came because I want to hang out with my friend."
Suyeon shot out from beside her and claimed the empty arm at Yeoncheong's side. But then—
"Baek Suyeon! I told you to watch the students!"
The teacher's thunderclap came down. Suyeon trudged back to Nayun with the heaviest footsteps imaginable.
Seoha, who had stuck close to Yeoncheong for the entire memorial hall tour, let out a small burst of laughter.
Perhaps it was inevitable after visiting such a heavy place — the students' spirits had settled somewhat.
But a school trip was still a trip. The school had just as thoroughly prepared something to lift the somber mood.
The buses rolled toward a nearby theme park, students pressing their faces to the windows and gawking at the scenery outside.
They already knew the itinerary. But just as at the memorial hall, there was a world of difference between knowing something in your head and seeing it with your own eyes.
The students who climbed off the bus and headed inside did so with eyes alight.
It was a theme park you toured by riding a little train.
Every class followed their homeroom teacher's direction without a fuss. The students understood, too: the faster the headcount wrapped up, the more time they'd have to play with.
Teacher Jisu let out a small sigh, and then a faint smile touched her lips.
"They only behave this well on days like this..."
The roll call finished at lightning speed. The homeroom teachers gathered their respective classes and gave their warnings.
Their own homeroom teacher, Ms. Jisu, checked the time on her smartphone before speaking.
"This place is enormous, okay? You're not going to be able to see all of it in the time we have. So don't go missing the train and showing up late — you come back on time, got it?"
"Yes, ma'am."
A single, unified answer. A sight you would never have seen in their classroom.
The students began to inch away, one stealthy step at a time. Ms. Jisu gave an awkward laugh and waved them off, shooing them along as if to say, go on, get moving.
As if it were the starting gun of a track meet, the students bolted for the main station.
The train had a fixed capacity. Miss it, and there was nothing to do but stand there and wait for the next one. The entire student body competed fiercely to squeeze in as much sightseeing as possible.
Yeoncheong had run her hardest at Suyeon's shout, but their position was poor. Each class lined up separately, and Class 1 had the farthest to go.
Suyeon gazed after the train as it pulled away packed to the brim, her eyes full of sorrow.
The train grew distant. It was already too late for regret. Yeoncheong picked up a couple of pamphlets from a nearby stand and brought them back to her friends.
Handing one to Suyeon, Yeoncheong spread hers open. Seoha tilted her head close beside her, studying the booklet along with them.
"Wow, it really is huge."
"Right... we should probably decide what we want to see before we go."
Suyeon recovered from her heartbreak with impressive speed. Before long, Hasol and Nayun were sandwiched in beside her, peering at the booklet.
Hasol rested her chin on Suyeon's shoulder and reached out a hand to point at the page.
"The second and the fourth look best to me."
"Hmm... yeah, those do seem like the prettiest spots for photos."
Suyeon nodded along, and Nayun leaned in from the other side.
"Really? The third station doesn't look bad either, though?"
Suyeon tilted her head slightly before answering.
"We're going to be walking around from tomorrow morning anyway. I don't think we need to pick a hiking course today."
"...Fair. I concede."
Nayun withdrew with good grace. The candidates were down to two.
Each of the three had already offered an opinion, so every pair of eyes turned toward Yeoncheong and Seoha. Seoha, who had been examining the booklet, glanced at the clock in the main station and spoke.
"Let's just do both. Going straight to the last station feels like a bit much for the first ride."
"Agreed — and look, the train only goes one way. If we're careless, we could end up looping around in circles forever."
Suyeon closed the booklet and summed it up.
"Then it's straight to the second station?"
Yeoncheong and the others nodded.
A short while later, following an attendant who helped them aboard, they filed one by one into the small, adorable little train.
The train was more than just a way to get around a sprawling theme park. Even the ride itself was a pleasure — every passing moment a chance to drink in the scenery.
Suyeon and Hasol poked their heads just out the window and beamed.
"Waah~ this is so nice and cool!"
"The train is fun too."
The season had only just tipped into the first days of summer, and the train — its windows flung wide open after being shut tight all year — let the cool breeze wash over their whole bodies.
The train passed the first station, with its sweeping artificial lake, and let Yeoncheong and her friends off at the second.
While Seoha slipped away to the restroom for a moment, Nayun caught sight of the snack bar and started drooling on the spot.
Suyeon blocked her path, demanding to know how she could be thinking about snacks when she hadn't even seen the sights yet.
A forest thick with lush foliage, and buildings topped with windmills. Everywhere you looked in the second zone, there was another photo spot. Except—
"We got here way too late."
They could certainly take pictures, but every spot that promised a beautiful shot was already occupied by other students.
"Then shall we head straight for the fourth station?"
Seoha materialized smoothly at their side, back from the restroom. None of them had noticed her approach, and the three huddled up tightly around Suyeon.
"Ah, what the— it's just Seoha."
Hasol patted her startled chest.
"Will it really be okay? There might be a lot of people there too."
When Suyeon asked back, Seoha shot a quick glance toward the station they'd just left.
"I asked the attendant back at the station. She said there's hardly anyone out there. And the flowers are blooming, apparently."
Five sets of eyes met and mingled. Amid the bustle all around them, the deliberation was brief.
The result of accepting Seoha's proposal—
"Yes! This place is amazing!"
Was perfection.
"Hey, Baek Suyeon! Come with me!"
Nayun chased after the bouncing, skipping Suyeon. Hasol stood still and raised her smartphone overhead, framing the shot so that both her excited friends and the scenery around them fit in the frame.
The surroundings were far more comfortable than the second zone they'd left behind — hardly any of the students who'd just arrived had headed straight for the last station.
And the attendant's tip that had made the bold choice possible proved entirely true.
Purple waves rippled and surged with the wind. The lavender, not yet due to reach full bloom, had stitched the field together beautifully all the same.
The purple-stained earth stood in stark contrast to a blue sky without a single cloud.
Yeoncheong looked back and forth between the words in the pamphlet and the view before her.
"It says here it won't be in full bloom like this..."
"You think it's the global warming?"
Yeoncheong snorted at Seoha's cheeky answer.
If that were true, then for once, the freak climate had actually done them a favor.
Watching Suyeon and Nayun race each other along the path, Yeoncheong murmured.
"I didn't know Nayun was this much of a flower person."
"She just moves a lot because of all the exercise. What woman on earth actually dislikes flowers?"
It was Hasol, who had at some point snapped a photo of the two from behind and come strolling up.
Yeoncheong wondered if the scenery really warranted all that bouncing — but then, this was coming from a fellow woman. She bobbed her head in concession.
"Guys, hurry up and come!"
A giant swing stood in the very heart of the lavender field. Suyeon and Nayun, having claimed the photo spot, waved their arms overhead.
The other three, Yeoncheong included, quickened their pace toward the friends who'd gone ahead.
At the top of a gentle slope, where the flower field spread out before them, Hasol and Seoha breathed small gasps of wonder. Yeoncheong, cresting the hill a beat behind, reacted much the same.
Like a lone ship drifting through a sea of blossoms — a brand-new white swing rose at the center of the flower field that unfolded all around them.
It felt as though they were floating adrift on a crimson-purple ocean, waves of color rolling with the wind.
Suyeon, who'd arrived first, was holding a snapped-off flower. She raised it up beside her face and—
"Who's the prettiest flower of all?"
It was a perfectly prepared, perfectly delivered line — but the people around her weren't a boyfriend. They were friends of the same sex.
"Suyeon."
When her friends answered in perfect unison with her name, Suyeon pushed out her lips in a pout.
"You cruel, cruel women..."
She flung the flower away and claimed the middle of the swing for herself.
"Whatever. Come here, quick. Let's take pictures."
With the swing as their frame, the five of them huddled close together and started with a group photo. After that, they wandered the walking trail winding through the flower beds.
Before the other students arrived, the five of them had the vast field to themselves, as if they'd rented out the whole thing.
Suyeon, who had been photographing her friends, found that at some point she'd stopped being the photographer and become a model instead — Hasol had appointed herself as her replacement.
It seemed unfair to make Hasol do all the shooting, so Yeoncheong extended a helping hand.
"Hasol, you take a turn. I'll take some for you."
"It's fine. You're genuinely terrible at taking pictures, Yeoncheong."
Struck squarely where it hurt, Yeoncheong let out a groan.
Her smartphone camera had always been pure decoration in her former life as a boy. That was exactly why Hasol had claimed photographer duty the moment she'd been handed the phone for a single shot.
"Honestly, it's best if I just do it myself."
Seoha and Nayun took pictures now and then too, but something always felt slightly lacking to Hasol.
It feels a little wrong for me to be the only one doing nothing...
Yeoncheong pulled out her smartphone and opened the camera. Her own photos had always felt somehow off, somehow awkward. Curious what the reason might be, she turned the lens this way and that.
And then, as she swung her body around, Hasol appeared on her screen.
Her hair glinted gold in the sunlight. Hasol was crouched down low, savoring the fragrance of the lavender blanketing the ground beneath her.
Just then, one of the island's characteristically fierce gusts of wind swept through in an instant, and the huddled lavender swayed and swelled with the motion.
"Whoaa!"
"Hey, Suyeon. Close your eyes for a second."
Suyeon flung both arms wide open, drinking in the fragrance with her whole body, while Nayun took her picture.
The mischievous wind didn't pass Hasol by, either. She turned her head to shield herself from it — and her amber eyes met the camera lens dead-on.
Her yellow eyes went round, as if she'd had no idea she was being photographed. But a moment later, Hasol broke into a wide, brilliant smile.
Composition, pose — there were rules and techniques and all manner of knowledge a person supposedly needed to take a good photograph. But in the end, what mattered most was simply whether you could capture your subject, and the moment.
Even Yeoncheong, who knew nothing about photography, knew it: this was that moment.
By the time Yeoncheong came back to herself, she had already pressed the shutter without realizing it.
A single click of the shutter. But there was no doubt about it.
It was, without question, the finest photograph Yeoncheong had ever taken in her life.
At the appointed meeting time, amid students lamenting the sight of a flower field in riotous bloom so out of season, Suyeon wore the smug expression of a conquering hero.
Hasol, checking the headcount in the teacher's stead, leaned toward Yeoncheong and whispered.
"That photo you took — why haven't you shown me?"
"Huh?"
"You were trying to sneak one earlier, weren't you?"
"No — that wasn't me trying to sneak anything..."
Deeply misunderstood, Yeoncheong fumbled for words. Hasol laughed lightly.
"Send it to me later. You weren't planning to keep it all to yourself, were you?"
"N-no, of course not."
The sky had not yet even begun to blush with sunset.
It felt too early to be leaving — but factoring in the distance to their lodgings and the business of unpacking on the first night, they needed to head out a little ahead of schedule.
It was only after boarding the bus in high spirits that Yeoncheong finally remembered.
There would be girls in her room. And they would all be sleeping together. For four whole days.