Rest Stop (2)
Rest Stop (2)
"I told you to stay inside, so why did you come out again."
"Because I was worried Lee Min-ho would do something weird again."
But when I actually approached where Jeong Hwan-yi was, following Lee Min-ho,
I didn't know what they were thinking, but all the people who had approached us earlier
had vanished into the rest area.
Jeong Hwan-yi was also walking toward us while letting out a sigh,
and he had become so sharp that I could practically feel his irritation.
What change of heart had those crazy women who hit on married men even had?
"What? How did you handle it?"
"I talked them down nicely and sent them back."
"That's a relief. Otherwise, Lee Min-ho would've gone crazy, cursing them out."
"What do you take me for..."
Saying he probably wouldn't have gone that far, he chuckled softly.
And as we watched Lee Min-ho heading toward the car, we couldn't help but feel dumbfounded.
He apparently didn't even remember suddenly snapping at the PC bang.
I even fell on my butt trying to stop you back then, you know?
"Anyway, don't take off your sunglasses once we're inside the resort."
"Won't that look unnatural?"
"At ski resorts, people normally wear goggles and stuff. Do you know why they wear them?"
"So snow doesn't get in their eyes?"
"That too, but snow reflects sunlight and makes it blinding."
"Aha... so goggles are like sunglasses."
Thinking of it that way, it probably wouldn't seem unnatural.
And a mask would just get damp for no reason, so skip that too...
"So? Where did those people from earlier go?"
"Are you really that curious?"
"Of course. That was the first time I'd seen people like that since the convenience store incident."
I thought we'd given them a proper warning back then,
but I never imagined people like that would approach us again.
Back then, with our ultra-hardline response, some people even had their families ruined.
Did they never think to restrain themselves after seeing that?
So this is why male celebrities hire bodyguards.
"Now that it's come up, how about hiring a bodyguard?"
"What kind of ordinary person has a bodyguard?"
"Calling someone with 10 million subscribers an ordinary person... did you come from some other world?"
"Ahem..."
Unable to retort, I climbed into the passenger seat.
Since Lee Min-ho had decided to drive from here to the resort anyway.
"So, I asked, what happened to those people earlier?"
"I told them if they kept this up, I'd contact the agency and the police and take hardline action."
"Oh... what a woman... no, what a man..."
"I guess they were scared of public authority after all, since they scampered right off?"
So they weren't scared of easy-target men, but the moment the police were mentioned, they quickly ran away.
Those women had no chance of ever dating a man.
***
"What is the name of the person who made the reservation?"
"It's Kang Jeong-hwan."
We entered the desk area at the resort entrance to check in first.
Even though it hadn't been long since the semester ended and it was a weekday, I thought there wouldn't be many people.
But there were group guests from high schools, and there seemed to be overseas guests too, so it was quite bustling.
"Where are we supposed to go up?"
"To H."
"That's at the very top. Can we drive in?"
"Of course. There's a parking lot in front."
I had been horrified, thinking we'd have to get out and walk up from here.
But they said we could drive up.
Well, if we couldn't drive up,
it wouldn't be a ski trip but a hiking trip.
Instead of going straight up to our lodging, we decided to look around the inside first.
Since we'd heard there was a mart here, we hadn't brought anything with us.
And we needed to buy groceries too.
"They really have all sorts of things here."
"Yeah... we definitely won't be bored."
We hadn't wandered around much, but there was an arcade and coin karaoke rooms,
and alongside jjimjilbang facilities, there were hot springs and sauna facilities too.
On top of that, there seemed to be a screen golf range as well.
"It's probably because this is a place families or groups normally come to, so they have a lot of different things."
"It's not just a ski slope. There's a sledding hill and an ice rink too..."
"When I made the reservation, I included tickets for the sledding and ice rink too."
"Seriously, Jeong Hwan-yi, I'm so glad you're so thorough."
I began to praise Jeong Hwan-yi, who told me not to worry since he had prepared everything, knowing this would happen.
I had thought a ski resort meant only skiing, but it turned out that wasn't the case, so I couldn't help but sigh in relief.
If I couldn't get into skiing, I'd just be wasting time for four days and three nights!
"You absolutely can't do nothing but ski for four days and three nights... you'd die of exhaustion."
"Even enjoying two sessions a day is plenty."
"Two sessions?"
"Think of it as about three hours per session."
As expected, the two of them must have come to places like this often.
I didn't know anything, but it flowed from their mouths as if it were common knowledge.
"Then, shall we buy dinner first..."
"Are you going to buy meat?"
"Of course I'm buying meat."
As I pulled out a shopping cart, the two faces looked at me with expressions that seemed to say, 'Why are you questioning the obvious?'
They felt a little distant from my own.
Earlier at the rest area, they'd said there were lots of good things to eat at the resort,
so I thought we'd be buying food to eat...
"Of course we'll buy meat, and we'll order food too."
"Our Seong-hwan was expecting a lot, huh?"
"Ugh..."
I dodged Lee Min-ho's hand as he tried to pat me with an obnoxiously fake-kind expression.
For me, who never had the occasion to order delivery or eat out at home,
getting to order food out at a time like this was such a precious opportunity.
*
Actually, I had been sensing it to some extent even before entering the mart.
Price tags that felt distant from the prices I normally saw at marts.
And a strange layout with more toys than a specialty toy store.
In the corner, they were even selling pizza and chicken...
Everything was a little different from the common sense I knew.
And when we put everything we wanted to buy in the cart and the total rang up at the register,
it was truly a price beyond imagination.
"A single bag of snacks was over 2,000 won..."
"Soju was 3,000 won a bottle... even restaurants don't sell it for that much..."
It wasn't just me; the other two were seriously shocked too.
Even if it's a tourist destination, wasn't twice the normal price a bit much?
I was startled to see that pork belly was nearly 40,000 won per kilogram.
"We should have bought it in Seoul and brought it with us."
"Since the weather was cold, things like meat wouldn't have spoiled either."
It was a grocery run that would have cost less than 150,000 won in Seoul,
but I sighed as I looked at the receipt that showed over 370,000 won.
"There aren't any other marts around here, right?"
"There was a convenience store next door earlier."
It was clearly a branded convenience store, but for some reason it had few items,
and it felt like one of those small convenience stands you'd find in subway stations.
"It's probably just as expensive there. Maybe even more expensive than the mart."
"At this point, shouldn't we report this for price gouging to the consumer protection agency?"
"The suggested retail price is just what the manufacturer recommends, it's not mandatory, so they won't even listen..."
At Jeong Hwan-yi's words, we all let out a sigh.
It hadn't even been two hours since we arrived,
but after spending so much money, it felt like a sort of post-spending clarity had hit us.
"Tch, it's expensive but let's not worry about it. We came here planning to spend freely anyway."
Lee Min-ho brushed it off, saying he was fine with it now, and got up.
Then, he handed me the bags he was holding
and started heading back into the mart.
"I'll buy more, so wait in the car."
"Hey, I'm going with you."
"How is Seong-hwan supposed to carry all that alone? Load it into the car and come back."
Maybe it stuck with them because I had once collapsed while carrying things alone.
I could see them being concerned about me.
"He's not wrong, but he did dump the stuff he was carrying onto me..."
"Let's hurry up, put these away, and go back to shopping."
"You're going to buy more too?"
"Yeah, I withdrew 2 million won in cash anyway. It'd be a waste to not spend it because I'm worried about the cost."
"Why would you withdraw that much cash..."
"A-ra noona told me to withdraw a lot."
"You've been influenced by your sister-in-law too, huh."
'Well, it was about time for that.' He nodded meaningfully.
Then he took the car key from me and loaded the items into the trunk.
The trunk was spacious enough to fit three carriers and two boxes.
I really liked it.
"Hiss... hey, you."
"What?"
"You're not going to collapse while skiing, are you?"
After loading everything and closing the door, Jeong Hwan-yi looked at me with a very worried expression.
Honestly, it was my first time skiing, so I didn't know how hard it would be,
and I didn't know how my body would handle it,
so I didn't know either.
"If you burn out like last time, it'll be a big problem, you know?"
"That was from lifting something heavy. As long as it's not something so strenuous it drains my stamina all at once, I'll be fine."
"Hmm... well, if you say so, I guess it'll be fine."
And I'd been going to the gym with A-ra, so I'd started exercising moderately,
and I hadn't collapsed once since that day.
Should I say it's gotten to the point where I can finally take off the 'frail boy' badge?
Anyway, I'd reached the point where I could at least handle my own share.
"Then let's hurry to the mart. Lee Min-ho must be waiting."
"Wait a moment. I can use a card at the mart, so I'll use my card."
Leaving the handbag with cash on the driver's seat,
I took out my wallet and closed the door.