The School Trip, and a Bond Already Severed
It was the last day of the school trip, and there was no particular schedule to speak of. Just free time to wander, and maybe a group photo at the beach nearby — that was about it.
The moment they arrived at the strip where free time would be spent, the teachers announced the meeting time and place, and the students broke off into little clusters, melting into the street.
Yeoncheong and her friends gathered as well, trading opinions on where to go. Suyeon was usually impossible to leave out of conversations like this, but right now something more important had her attention.
"Yeoncheong~ come on, won't you at least talk to me?"
Suyeon clung on like a burr, and Yeoncheong treated her as if she simply didn't exist.
Under normal circumstances, this sulk would have melted away ages ago. But the fire in Yeoncheong — who had, for the record, never once been spanked even by her own parents — was burning long.
The other three peeled the two apart and settled on a place to explore.
"Suyeon, we've got it all picked out. Let's go."
She couldn't exactly hang off her friend all the way down the street, so Suyeon reluctantly let go, watching Yeoncheong's face carefully as she did.
Since it was the final day of the trip, most of the free time went toward souvenirs and gifts. Yeoncheong, with no one to buy presents for, trailed a few steps behind and simply watched her friends shop.
Suyeon and the others browsed the merchandise, asking each other which ones looked best. Yeoncheong fiddled with her smartphone, half-considering snapping a picture of Suyeon — possibly the last photo of her she'd ever take — but the lingering resentment wedged in one corner of her heart stopped her finger.
Once her friends had secured their souvenirs and gifts to their satisfaction, they went off in search of a café for a short break.
Hasol murmured as she dodged the crowds pressing in from all sides.
"Whew, it just keeps getting more crowded."
The street was a dizzying jumble of tourists and students on school trips. They had to walk carefully just to keep from getting separated.
Even as she walked, Suyeon's eyes roamed the surroundings — and landed on a certain souvenir shop.
"Hey, guys. Let's just go as far as that shop over there."
With Suyeon marching straight ahead in the lead, the friends slipped free of the chaotic stream of pedestrians.
Nayun fanned her face with a hand and looked back at the street they'd just escaped.
"Wow... the weather's brutal enough, and with crowds like this? I'm dying."
"Now that you mention it, looks like plenty of other schools came on their trips too, not just ours."
Hasol nodded, eyeing the packs of teenagers with that unmistakable fresh-faced air — far too youthful to pass for tourists.
Seoha had already drifted to the front of the shop, studying the souvenirs on display. Keychains of animals turned into mascot dolls — round, utterly harmless faces and flat little eyes were their signature.
"...Capybaras?"
Seoha tilted her head. Why on earth were these here?
Well, it was Jeju Island. Each one came with some tangerine-themed twist — a tangerine perched on its head, or a tangerine-shaped pool float around its belly.
At some point Nayun had wandered over and was browsing the same capybara keychains.
"What do capybaras even have to do with Jeju Island?"
"No idea. But still..."
Suyeon came up beside her and held up a keychain of a capybara with a tangerine balanced on its head.
"They're cute, aren't they?"
"...Can't argue with that."
Cuteness. An answer that rendered the original question of any logical connection between the two utterly irrelevant.
"Let's each pick one and hang it on our bags."
"Sounds good to me."
Faced with the sheer variety of capybaras, Hasol agreed to Suyeon's proposal. Nayun had no objections either and was busy picking out the keychain she liked — when Seoha glanced around.
"Um, where's Yeoncheong?"
"Huh?"
Only then did the friends look around, but Yeoncheong was nowhere to be seen.
Just a few steps off the crowded street and a quiet alleyway opened up; follow it deeper, and the quiet gave way to something more desolate — a back alley that seemed to repel foot traffic altogether.
It was there that two sets of footsteps echoed at different intervals, along with the sound of a scuffle.
"Let go, you crazy bastard... I said let go!"
Yeoncheong was being dragged along by the wrist. She wrenched her arm with all her strength, but it didn't go the way she wanted.
The other party glanced once toward the distant street, then blocked the view with his own body.
"Wow... you changed your name, changed your number, transferred schools. I figured I'd never see you again — and here we meet again. Maybe it's fate?"
"Fate? Don't make me laugh."
The man leered as his eyes traveled up and down Yeoncheong's outfit.
"Judging by the clothes, you didn't transfer to Jeju... did you come here on a school trip too?"
"I have zero interest in talking to an animal like you. I'll pretend I never saw you and walk away, so do yourself a favor and let go of my arm."
Her face was twisted into something unrecognizable — an expression she had never once shown at school.
Beneath furrowed brows, her narrowed eyes brimmed with disgust and revulsion.
The other party was no fool — he could sneer through an insult and an expression that hid nothing, because he thought he had the upper hand.
The grip on her wrist tightened, and Yeoncheong's face contorted.
"Hey, come on — an old friend wants to catch up after all this time... and you call me an animal? Isn't that a bit much?"
"Old friend my ass. You should be thanking your luck I settled for 'animal.'"
Like a cornered small animal puffing itself up and growling — even backed into a wall, Yeoncheong bared her teeth. The man let out a hollow laugh, as if he were the injured party.
"Ha! I transferred out too, you know — because of the rumors you started about me!"
That was news to her. Still, hearing it, the corners of her mouth curled up faintly.
Yeoncheong smiled at news of his misfortune, and the man looked at her in disbelief.
"Funny, coming from you — you never did report it, did you? You said you hated the drama, so you quietly buried the whole thing... and in the end, nothing ever happened, right? Well, isn't that just fine and dandy?"
The sheer shamelessness of it left Yeoncheong momentarily speechless — and he took the opening to rake his eyes over her body.
"A few months pass and now you're a full-on girl? Back then you raised hell about what boys were supposed to be doing to each other... so what, one round's fine now?"
"You sick bastard... is that seriously all that's rattling around in your head? I used to be a guy."
He shrugged as if it were nothing.
"Look, honestly — your face is decent, your body's great. I'd say that's plenty, wouldn't you?"
Yeoncheong, who had been straining and tugging at her trapped wrist, spat out one more cutting line.
"Then I'm the idiot. A parent who curses their kid for having no mother, a bastard who spends over a year with a friend and then gets his dick thinking about her — the real mistake was me, for ever being friends with trash like you."
The words were barely out of her mouth when Yeoncheong screamed.
"Aagh!"
Her wrist was free — but her liberated hand had seized the arm of the man who was grabbing her by the hair.
Grimacing in pain, he was barely holding on to his reason.
"You little... so you've got plenty to say after all."
"Ha! And everything you said to me, everything you did — was all of that perfectly acceptable?"
As their voices rose, passersby began turning their heads into the alley one by one. With eyes on them now, the boy raised his hand and lowered it, over and over, unable to follow through.
"Isn't that enough? Now get lost. Or should I start screaming?"
"Go ahead, if you can. You'll be shaking like you were back then — you think any voice's gonna come out?"
As Yeoncheong struggled, the smartphone in her pocket slipped partway out. The man stared at it for a moment, then grinned, a lecherous gleam in his eye.
"Those are your friends now, aren't they? Do they know you used to be a guy?"
"You absolute lunatic!"
His intention was obvious. With no time even to wipe away the tears of frustration welling up, Yeoncheong twisted her body and dodged his reaching hand.
She knew that gap in height and strength all too well. Her strength was draining away, and the memory of that time was surfacing — the trembling she'd been forcing down was getting worse.
Scanning for an opening, hoping for a lucky break like last time, Yeoncheong was handed a chance she never asked for.
"Yeoncheong? What are you doing here?"
"Is that really you, Yeoncheong?"
Siyeon and Seobin had slipped into the alley without her noticing.
In the split second the startled man turned his head, Yeoncheong drove her previously drawn-back leg straight forward. Aimed at the most vulnerable spot, the attack sent him scrambling backward in a hurry.
"You crazy bitch, I swear—!"
Yeoncheong shoved him away and got Siyeon and Seobin out of the alley.
"You! If I ever find you, you're dead!"
Ignoring the roar behind them, they ran for a good long while. It was Siyeon who finally looked back and stopped Yeoncheong in her tracks.
"Hey, they're not following us anym— ...Huh?"
She'd seemed perfectly fine while they were escaping. She must have been running on sheer willpower the whole time.
A gaze wavering in the crowd. The trembling felt through clasped hands. A wrist rubbed raw and red. Tangled hair, and the traces of tears that had been shed. The way she'd looked, wrenching free and fleeing, right down to the last second.
Something had happened. It was written all over her, plain as day.
Seobin looked at her friend with eyes that asked what they should do. Siyeon let out a sigh and studied Yeoncheong carefully.
"What happened?"
"Nothing... it was nothing."
Blue eyes sliding away. Telling a story like that with eyes full of history — neither of them believed a word of it.
They asked two or three more times. The answer never changed.
Faced with the circular conversation, Siyeon gave up first.
"Fine, don't tell me if you don't want to. Where are Baek Suyeon and the others?"
"Uh, um... we should go. We have to go."
Yeoncheong responded like a machine on the fritz.
Repeating that they had to go without even knowing where. She couldn't even think to pull out her phone. Her body had left that alley behind, but every nerve in her was still tied to it.
The sigh Siyeon let out at the sight went a whole octave deeper.
She pulled out her phone, contacted Suyeon, then turned back to Yeoncheong.
"They said they're with her. You'll come with us, and we'll drop you off at the meeting time."
"Siyeon... that bookstore in that alley..."
"We're not going. How could we. Let's just kill some time somewhere nearby."
Siyeon took the lead. Seobin started to follow, but Yeoncheong — rooted to the spot — held her back.
After a moment's hesitation, Seobin gently took her friend's hand in both of hers and led her along.
"...Thank you."
Yeoncheong's whisper of thanks — barely audible — was swallowed up by the noise of the street.
Spotting Siyeon — her own spitting image — Suyeon waved.
"Oh! Siyeon! Over here."
Siyeon glanced back over her shoulder, then came over with Seobin. Yeoncheong walked behind Siyeon, beside Seobin.
"Yeoncheong, where'd you run off to? We all bought keychains together — look! We all picked yours out together, what do you think?"
The words poured out of Suyeon like a machine gun. Yeoncheong glanced briefly at the keychain, but showed no particular reaction.
Siyeon, standing beside her, whispered to her twin.
"Hey, Baek Suyeon. Take better care of your friend."
"Why? What happened?"
Yeoncheong had made her swear never to tell anyone.
Siyeon shot a quick glance around, then scratched her head in irritation.
"Ugh, geez... I only saw it from halfway through, so I don't really know either. Point is — just take good care of her."
Siyeon left without so much as a backward glance, and Seobin said her goodbyes to Yeoncheong before following. Suyeon went straight to the source.
"Yeoncheong, what happened?"
"It's nothing. I just got separated all of a sudden, so it gave me a bit of a scare. Don't worry about it."
Anyone could tell that Yeoncheong's awkward smile was a lie.
There was so much she wanted to ask — but it was time to board the bus.
They arrived at the beach for the group photo. Not just Suyeon and Hasol, but Seoha and Nayun too all picked up on the deflated atmosphere hanging over the group. Yet no one was in any position to bring it up.
With nothing gained, the beach marked the final stop of the trip, and the bus headed for the airport.
Suyeon kept a careful eye on Yeoncheong beside her. Her friend was fiddling with the keychain they'd all agonized over choosing, her face pale.
Which meant there was just one silver lining: Suyeon knew exactly what to do in a situation like this.
"Yeoncheong."
"Take a nap."
Before Yeoncheong could even lift her head and protest, Suyeon was already in motion — guiding her head down onto her own shoulder.
She still wasn't sulking, apparently, because she didn't reject the touch.
Suyeon murmured softly.
"I don't know what happened, but... when it's like this, napping is the best medicine."
Stopping her friend's attempt to straighten up, Suyeon kept talking.
"Just play along and close your eyes. I'll even lend you my shoulder, special deal. I don't do this for just anyone, you know?"
Maybe it was because her friend asked nothing at all. Or maybe because she was uncharacteristically serious.
Yeoncheong's eyes wavered wildly. She wasn't so oblivious that she couldn't see how she must look right now. And yet her friends asked nothing.
As the lullaby-like chatter went on, the worry in her blue eyes only seemed to deepen.
Suyeon couldn't watch any longer. Quietly, her free hand rose, and she gently closed both of Yeoncheong's eyes for her.
"You must've been exhausted, getting separated like that. Sleep, okay?"
"...I'm sorry."
Suyeon snorted a little laugh.
"In situations like this, you say thank you."
"...Thank you."
A little while after the bus pulled away, Suyeon called Yeoncheong's name two or three times. When no answer came, she pouted her lips.
"So unfair. I'm the only one you won't take a photo with."
Carefully, she raised her smartphone.
Careful not to wake her, camera in hand, Suyeon smiled softly.
"This photo will have to do."
Click.
And so, with Suyeon's secretly-taken selfie as the final note, the four-day school trip drew to a close.