Ski Resort
Ski Resort
After renting the equipment and entering the ski resort, it was a snow country.
No, I borrowed the opening line of a novel, but
it really was covered in pure white snow, so it looked that way.
As I was distracted and delighted by the snow, Jeong Hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho smiled wryly
and gestured for me to come over quickly.
Were they planning to start the lesson already?
Ah, for reference,
since I had never skied before, I decided to learn from the two of them.
"First, the basics of skiing are all about falling."
"Falling?"
"Skiing is a sport where falling is routine, you know? So you can't be afraid of falling.
Now, please welcome a demonstration by a skilled instructor. Applause."
When Jeong Hwan-yi started clapping, I inadvertently clapped along.
Though they were ski gloves, so there wasn't much sound.
Anyway, Jeong Hwan-yi had been talking as if he was going to teach me himself,
but then suddenly recruited Lee Min-ho.
Just like a skit, like a celebrity stepping onto the stage of a stand-up program,
he began bowing his head in greeting.
Only after the skit ended did Lee Min-ho look at Jeong Hwan-yi and chuckle,
letting out a sigh.
"Skilled, my foot... at most, I only come once or twice a year to ski."
"Seong-hwan has never skied before."
Still, because Lee Min-ho was the one who frequented the ski resort most often,
he was able to teach me the basics.
Jeong Hwan-yi had only been once and hadn't learned from a separate instructor,
so he opted to learn from Lee Min-ho alongside me.
For reference, in Lee Min-ho's case, it seemed he could snowboard as well as ski.
Not only that, he could apparently come down an advanced course
smoothly without resting even once.
Wouldn't that be sufficient skill to teach someone?
"Well, just teaching the basics should be enough."
"Since you're at it, teach me how to ski properly too! What kind of instructor acts like that!"
"You learn that yourself by practicing the basic stance. And I'm not an instructor, okay?"
Scolding him not to say things like that and draw attention from the people around us,
Lee Min-ho reprimanded Jeong Hwan-yi.
Well, since they were wearing goggles,
a crowd wouldn't gather, but still, a small unconscious action could lead to a big incident, right?
It was best to just be careful.
"Alright, then as Jeong Hwan-yi mentioned earlier, we'll start by practicing falling."
"But what on earth does falling mean?"
"As Jeong Hwan-yi said earlier, skiing is a sport where falling is routine. But there's a knack to falling properly even when you fall."
According to him, the part injured most often when skiing is the knee,
and particularly, anterior cruciate ligament tears are common.
Of course, not slipping would be the best method,
but in a sport where you slide on snow, how easy is it to not slip?
So, if you're going to fall anyway, you learn how to fall safely without getting hurt.
And since doing that before skiing or snowboarding is the priority,
the technique of falling is apparently called 'the basics.'
"When falling, absolutely do not plant your hands on the ground."
Usually, when people fall, they unconsciously try to brace themselves with their hands
—a very dangerous action.
"And stick your butt out far and fall on it, the firmest and least painful part."
The glutes are solid and not very pain-sensitive, so they hurt less, meaning you sacrifice them.
"When getting up, grasp both knees together, stand them up, crouch down onto the skis, and then stand up."
"Oh... it really is easier to get up this way."
With boards strapped to the soles of my feet,
the angle was awkward when getting up after a fall, but getting up this way
seemed simple and worked well.
"But skiing... this is pretty tough."
"Sports that use equipment always require a lot of stamina."
Maybe because the skis are attached to your legs,
you have to make unnecessarily large movements, doing things you'd never normally do,
so I seemed to get tired faster.
***
Dragging my weary body out of the ski resort and heading to the condo, my body began to ache all over.
Not just me; Jeong Hwan-yi and Lee Min-ho also seemed stiff,
as they rolled their shoulders or loosened their ankles,
but apparently, they weren't sore all over like I was.
"My whole body hurts..."
"Who told you to fall so much?"
"When you get home, you're going to get scolded like crazy by your wife."
Maybe endorphins or something had kicked in because skiing was so much fun;
after returning the equipment and stepping outside, the pain started creeping through my body.
Because the snow was soft and it didn't hurt when I fell,
I fell as much as I pleased, and now the pain was hitting me all at once.
"If you soak in the hot water at the bathhouse, it'll probably hurt less."
"Keuh... Seong-hwan, you're really lucky. It's a hot spring, a hot spring, no less."
How much effect could soaking in hot spring water once really have?
But still, loosening up in hot water would relax the stiff muscles and feel refreshing.
But exercising doesn't show great results easily.
Even if my stamina seemed to have increased, my body still got tired and ached when I moved a lot
—it wasn't much different.
"Of course, dummy. Skiing is a sport, so it falls under the category of exercise."
"When you exercise, your body aching is a given."
"Ah... right..."
I fell so much I forgot,
but skiing is a sport—it falls under the category of exercise!
Then did we come here to exercise, not to have fun?
"Huh?"
"What's wrong?"
"Look over there."
When we arrived at the condo parking lot, there were people—from young-looking noonas
to aunties who had come with their families—talking with raised voices in the parking lot.
It wouldn't be like Lee Min-ho to leave without listening to what the noonas and aunties were saying;
he promptly approached the gathered group
and started asking what was going on.
"Excuse me. Is something the matter?"
"Did you students also come by car?"
"Yes, that one parked over there is our car... Huh? Why is its door open?"
"You students didn't lock your doors properly either, huh? Right now it's complete chaos because of car break-ins."
What had I left in the car?
All the luggage had been moved into the condo; now that I thought about it, we'd finished all the coffee and hadn't cleaned it up.
I hadn't really left anything particular in the car...
"Ah."
"Did you leave something valuable in the car?"
"I think I left the cash I withdrew earlier..."
Remembering the cash I'd withdrawn earlier, I ran to the car.
I'd forgotten to lock the door more than once before,
but to forget on a trip, of all times.
I swung the ajar car door wide
and checked the spot where I'd put the money earlier.
Just as expected... not a single green bill was visible
in the spot where I'd put the money.
"How much cash did you say you withdrew?"
"Two million won..."
"Looks like the students' car got broken into too. Goodness... what a thing to happen when you've come to have fun..."
"What's the extent of the damage for the others?"
"I don't know what kind of crazy bitch it was, but it seems everything worth money, not just cash, has disappeared."
"Seong-hwan, is there anything else missing besides the cash?"
"No, you guys didn't leave anything behind when you got out, right?"
"No."
"I didn't either."
"Haa... Still, that's a relief."
It was fortunate that only my things disappeared;
if Jeong Hwan-yi's or Lee Min-ho's things had also disappeared, I wouldn't have been able to lift my head out of guilt.
"Still, it's a relief your cards didn't get stolen."
"That's not something a guy who just got two million won stolen should say... but seeing you from time to time, you really seem laid-back."
"If you're going to live as A-ra Noona's husband, you'd need at least this much nerve, wouldn't you?"
Anyway, the dashcam was set up here, and CCTV was everywhere; there was no way they wouldn't catch the thief.
And since the aunties had already contacted the police and notified the resort,
couldn't we just file a damage report and go have fun?
As for cash, I could just go to an ATM and withdraw more.
"Hey, we have to wait until the police come."
"Can't we just go to the bathhouse first?"
"No, and also, you have to contact the company for things like this, so wait."
As expected of a PD writer, I couldn't stop Jeong Hwan-yi
from saying he had to contact the company first.
***
"Haa... the bathhouse here is really nice."
"Maybe because it was expensive, there were few people too."
The facilities were good, but because the price was high, there were few people.
Thanks to that, we could bathe comfortably, which was nice.
"How's your body feeling?"
"Maybe a bit better than before?"
After buying anti-inflammatory pain relievers and muscle relaxants at the pharmacy, taking them, and soaking my body thoroughly, it seemed to hurt less than before.
No, rather, I felt so refreshed that the desire to lie down and sleep right away started to rise.
"It'd be a waste to come all the way here just to sleep. Want to eat and then go sing?"
"Right. There's a coin karaoke here. But I wonder if it's okay for guys to go alone."
"Jeez, worrywart."
"He got overprotected, and now he's started overprotecting himself."
The coin karaoke I had seen earlier was a bit gloomy and looked empty,
so I was a little worried about that and mentioned it.
What if guys are alone and run into some weird women?
"It's a weekday, so at most, there'll only be high schoolers, you know?"
"No, earlier I saw a group from a university that had apparently come for MT."
"But the semester isn't over yet, is it?"
"It's the department coming to have fun, so they're probably calling it MT."
Anyway, the two of them seemed dead set on going to the coin karaoke.
Well, it would probably be fine if I went with these two.