The Appraisal
The next morning, I woke to a faintly peculiar sensation.
"My body... feels heavy."
It had been about a month since I'd last felt this heavy, warm weight. I sat up. We were in the thick of a sweltering summer, and even with the air conditioner humming on low, the heat refused to leave, so I'd broken a light sweat in my sleep.
Then I looked down into the blankets.
"Tsuki... what are you doing?"
"Hehe, did Jiwoo-chan sleep well? It's morning now! And we have to get up early because of today's schedule!"
I checked the phone I'd left beside the bedding. It was still so early the sun hadn't even risen. I shoved Tsuki out of the blankets.
"Get out first. And what schedule? I haven't heard a thing about this."
"Ah... I forgot! I was supposed to tell you yesterday, heh~"
Tsuki gave her own head a little tap and stuck out her tongue. Anyone could see it was over-the-top, but when tiny, adorable Tsuki did it, it was genuinely cute. Cute enough to make me want to nibble her to death.
"J-Jiwoo-chan...? Why that face... Tsuki's scared..."
"Hm? It's nothing. Probably just because I woke up too early. And... could you take your hand off now? Off my chest."
"Ah! So that's why. Sorry, Jiwoo-chan."
Last night, right before we'd gone to sleep, Tsuki's mother had given us yukata to wear as nightclothes. Whether I'd tossed in my sleep or Tsuki had undone the robe herself, the front had fallen wide open—and Tsuki hadn't missed the gap. Her hand was planted on my chest.
Maybe because it was another girl, I didn't feel any real aversion. Still, waking up to someone fondling your chest is a feeling that's... hard to put into words. Deeply, profoundly weird.
"So what's on the schedule today?"
"Yes! Today we're going to the pool! We originally wanted the ocean, but getting to the sea from Tokyo takes time and a lot of prep, so yesterday we all agreed on the pool instead!"
So. In this process of "unifying opinions," why had nobody asked mine? Was this that intra-group bullying I'd only ever heard about?
"Jiwoo-chan looked so tired yesterday, so we decided among ourselves. And I was going to tell you yesterday! But then I heard you'd already gone to the bath, so I was in a hurry."
"In a hurry for..."
...what? The rest of the sentence never made it out. The instant I started to ask, I got the distinct feeling Tsuki was about to launch herself at me.
"Curious?"
"...Huh?"
"About why Tsuki was in such a hurry."
"No... not even a little. We should start waking the others—kyaah!"
"Don't worry! Tsuki will tell you everything!"
"Wait! Don't come any closer! Words! Let's use our words!"
"Don't run away! Leave it to Tsuki!"
Leave what!!
"...What are you two doing?"
Thanks to Jina waking up at the racket, I finally managed to peel Tsuki off me.
"Unnie, I heard we're going to the pool today. Is that true?"
"Hm? Tsuki didn't tell you yesterday... yeah, that tracks."
"Right. It is Tsuki, after all."
Jina accepted that explanation without another word. Because it was Tsuki.
"That's right! Because I'm Tsuki!"
"...Tsuki. That wasn't a compliment."
"Not... a compliment?"
"...Okay, actually, it was a compliment."
"Yes! See! Because Tsuki is Tsuki!"
Tsuki, Tsuki... how did you turn into this? When we first met, she'd been packed solid with confidence, the kind of girl who'd fail a test and still grind her way through on sheer passion...
Wait. Come to think of it... she was pretty much like this back then too, wasn't she?
Which meant Tsuki hadn't changed at all. Nobody had. Then what? Why had we all decided she'd changed?
"Whatever. Let's wake Yuwol first."
"She's still out cold even through all this noise."
Of all the members, Yuwol was the heaviest sleeper and the last to get up. Surprisingly, the earliest to bed and earliest to rise was Jina. My own sleep had become wildly irregular thanks to a schedule that never sat still. As for Tsuki... she slept whenever she felt like it. She didn't count.
"Let's get ready... not that there's much to prep. Everyone already packed their swimsuits."
"Uh... I didn't pack one? I never even heard the words 'ocean' or 'pool' until we got here."
"Didn't you? Well, we can rent one or buy one! Everyone, let's get moving."
At Jina's word, we woke Yuwol, finished making the bedding, and started getting ready for the morning. We lined up at the sink, washed our faces, brushed our teeth, and threw on our clothes.
"Which pool are we going to?"
"Waterland!"
Tsuki announced it with such pride that it had to be a decent place. I looked it up.
"Hmm... basically an amusement park and a water park in one. There's a place in Korea this reminds me of..."
Then I saw the prices and nearly choked.
"Wow, it's expensive here too... not unaffordable, though."
Eight thousand yen a head was steep, but if the rides and the water attractions were worth it, it wasn't a bad... it was a fair price, right?
"If you're all ready, let's move. Travel time's about two hours."
"Are we taking public transit, or...?"
"We're driving, obviously. Not that we'd be the ones behind the wheel..."
Yuwol, already dressed, stared at me and slowly shook her head.
That reaction was a little insulting. It made it look like I was the problem. Sure, I'd caused a few incidents lately, but none of them had blown up into anything serious. At school I'd even handed out burgers to the entire student body on cafeteria-strike day. People had called me a little full of myself at first, but that talk had mostly died down. On closing-ceremony day, kids had even asked if they could follow me on Instagram. Didn't that make me one of the popular kids now?
"Wait, unnie isn't the one driving, right?"
At Jina's question, my whole body locked up. Tsuki tilted her head beside me like she couldn't see what the fuss was. That was because she'd never ridden in a car Yuwol was driving.
"Jiwoo, that reaction is a bit much. I've been practicing whenever I have time. And I know Japan's driving on the other side, so my current skill level would be dangerous. Hoyeon's going to drive."
The Waterland party was the four of us, Hoyeon as our guardian, and two bodyguards—seven people in total. Which meant we'd have to take two cars.
"When you say bodyguards... it's not Bodyguard Lee Kangseok, is it?"
"It is, actually."
"Ah..."
I'd been planning to eat a mountain of good food at Waterland. With Lee Kangseok around, that would be impossible. He was there to protect me, sure—but he was also there to keep an eye on me.
"We haven't even left and I've already lost all my energy."
"Don't worry so much. I'll talk to him. He'll let you eat a little."
"Really? I love you, unnie!!"
I threw myself at Yuwol.
"Ah! Unnie's so unfair! Tsuki wants to hug Jiwoo-chan too!"
"It's not like that! Calm down first!"
"There are times I'm this grateful to you... I really love you!"
"Jiwoo-chan! Me too! Me too!"
"Both of you, get off!!"
"So when are we actually leaving?"
Jina, standing off to the side by herself, looked at us like we were hopeless. That was enough for Yuwol to finally wriggle free.
We finally got on the road and arrived at Waterland about two hours later.
"Everyone change in the locker room. Jiwoo, you go buy a swimsuit. Buy a decent one."
"Can't I just grab whatever?"
"...No. I'm coming with you. If I leave it to you, you'll come back with something weird."
"What exactly do you take me for?"
A swimsuit. You just buy something you swim in, right?
"You have no fashion sense, Jiwoo. What about you two?"
"I'll tag along."
"Me too."
"Then Tsuki too!"
In the end, not a single person sat it out. Everyone joined the expedition to buy my swimsuit. Did they really need to? It was a terrible use of manpower. It would've been far more efficient for a few of them to go ahead, claim the paid lockers, and stake out a spot.
Well, judging by Hoyeon's face, this wasn't some last-minute scramble. She'd probably made a reservation.
I followed the members to the swimsuit shop, but...
"You want me to wear this?"
There was only one swimsuit in my size.
Back in the locker room with the swimsuit purchased, I stripped without thinking and tossed my clothes into the locker, ready to change into the new suit.
"Jiwoo. If you throw them in like that, they'll be wrinkled when you take them out. Fold them properly."
"They're just clothes. If they wrinkle, I can just shake them out and put them back on, right?"
"Tsk. Just listen. And if you snap them out that hard, you wreck the fabric. Hurry up."
"Yes..."
"I've known this for a while, but Jiwoo, your proportions are seriously good..."
Jina let out a dazed little sigh beside me. She'd seen me before. Why the reaction now? And I wasn't the only one with a good figure.
"Yuwol has a body too, you know. Everything that should come out comes out, everything that should go in goes in, and with all the recent training, the extra weight's basically gone."
"Ugh, don't even say that... I really thought I was going to die back then."
As debut had drawn closer, we'd been put through brutal training. Looking back now, I could barely even remember how we'd survived it.
"And no matter how good I look, I'm still not on Jiwoo's level."
It was true my chest was the biggest in the room, but Yuwol was hardly small enough to be saying that.
"S-still! Jina, your skin is great! And you train the hardest out of all of us... yeah! You can really tell how sturdy you are!"
Yuwol felt a chilly stare from the side and tried to change the subject.
"Isn't Jiwoo's skin way better than mine, too?"
"That's... true."
Yuwol's head drooped.
"But... Jiwoo, why are you like this? Great skin, great body... you sing well, you even act... is there anything you can't do?"
Jealousy must have boiled over. Yuwol started laying into me. Why was I catching strays all of a sudden? She'd started this herself.
That was when it happened. We'd taken so long that Hoyeon, who'd already changed and left, came back looking for us.
"Quit the nonsense and get changed already."
And then.
"I never noticed with clothes on, but Hoyeon actually has a pretty..."
"Right? Why is it so good?"
"Maybe she was too stressed out because of us to ever put on weight?"
"That's not because of us. That's because of you, Jiwoo."
"Huh? Why would that be my fault..."
"Anyway, what size does she look?"
"Hmm.... C? Or a little under D?"
We proceeded to hold an appraisal of Hoyeon's chest.