RUN
RUN
I turned on the hot water in the large open-air bath and sat down on the sofa in the huge living room.
'How many pyeong is this, roughly?'
I didn't know the exact size, but if you counted all the way up to the upper floor, it had to be at least over 200 pyeong.
'A place like this must be the kind of place a company rents out for dozens of people to come and have fun.'
It was definitely too big for just A-ra and me to enjoy.
"If I'd known it would be like this, maybe I should've just gone to a hotel with a big spa."
Summer was almost over, but hotel vacations were a thing, weren't they?
In this day and age, when you could do everything inside a hotel, it was the best way to relax comfortably.
"Hmm... Or maybe we could enjoy the pension today, and go to a hotel tomorrow."
I had no intention of getting a refund anyway.
We could just use it for one day and leave it empty.
Yeah, let's do that.
Having reached that conclusion in my mind, I stood up from my seat.
"Noona! Is there anything on the second floor?"
"No, I'm just looking around! It's a little far, but you can see the night view!"
A night view, huh...
Since we came to the mountains, taking in the view at least once wouldn't be bad.
Thinking back to the night view I saw at the observatory last time...
It would be really great for setting the mood.
Smiling brightly at the thought, I went up to the second floor.
On the second floor, there were several bedrooms where you could sleep, a bathroom, and a laundry drying rack.
There wasn't much else besides that.
No, wait.
The most important thing was there — the terrace with the night view.
In a way, you could say it was the most outstanding feature along with the open-air bath.
As I approached the terrace, I saw A-ra sitting in a chair, gazing at the night view spread out in the distance.
It was probably some city in North Gyeongsang Province, but to me, who didn't even know which direction this place was in, that didn't matter.
"It's pretty."
"Right? Still, I think it isn't as good as the one we saw last time."
"Well... that was in the middle of Seoul, after all."
After all, nothing bright and flashy can beat the night streets of Seoul.
But the air here was clearer, so the stars were more visible too — so wasn't it about the same?
"The air is nice, but I keep hearing loud noises from somewhere."
"It's probably the pension next door, right? I saw some cars parked there earlier."
This place was laid out so that several pensions were close together with tall walls between them.
You couldn't block noise with just one wall, so hearing other people's voices was unavoidable.
"Hmm... But they were even shouting into something like a microphone..."
"That's a bit... Should I call the owner and ask them to keep it down?"
"No, they came here to have fun too, so we shouldn't do that."
A-ra shook her head and gently scolded me.
Instead of doing that, she pulled a chair over and placed it beside her, telling me to sit next to her.
When I sat down, A-ra rested her head on my shoulder and started humming her new song.
It was a new song that hadn't even been released yet.
"It hasn't even been released yet, is it okay to let me hear it?"
"It doesn't matter for my husband~"
"Hey, your husband could be a spy, you know?"
"S-Seong-hwan, are you a spy?!"
Startled, she began gently stroking my face.
Then she pulled my cheeks this way and that, and when she didn't get the answer she wanted, she tilted her head in confusion.
"No? This is definitely our Seong-hwan though?"
"Just because I'm a spy doesn't mean I'm a different person... That hurts..."
"Does it hurt a lot? I'm sorry."
She tried to rip my face apart with her monstrous strength.
I wished she would treat her husband a little more gently.
***
"...Noona, let's go to a hotel today."
"Yeah... I think that would be better."
We'd grilled meat, bathed, and enjoyed everything there was to enjoy, but when I asked why she had that look on her face, all I got were deep sighs.
It was because an unexpected obstacle had made staying here too difficult.
That obstacle was noise.
And also the fact that our privacy was not as protected as we thought.
First of all, the people from the other pension who came to have fun this time were too loud.
So loud I wondered if each person had brought their own megaphone.
And as for privacy, I was partly to blame, too — the doorbell suddenly rang, and when I went outside,
there were people who looked to be in their thirties or forties who had come over asking to hang out together.
At the time, A-ra and I weren't wearing sunglasses or masks or anything,
so of course our identities got out, and things escalated to the point where people with no manners came knocking on the pension door asking to see our faces just once.
"We've finished packing up, so let's just get out of here quickly."
"Sigh... I'm sorry, noona."
"Seong-hwan, why are you sorry? It's noona's fault for choosing this kind of place."
In the end, I was the one who said this place looked nice, so wasn't it my fault?
No, right now it wasn't the time to figure out whose fault it was.
We had to get out of here fast.
We came to have fun and only ended up in a foul mood — what a ridiculous mess.
"Little One, Pipsqueak, you have to be quiet. Got it?"
"Woof."
"Woof."
Our two little rascals nodded as if they understood.
I quickly put both dogs in their carrier and lifted it with one hand.
We carefully carried our luggage, then climbed into the car as quickly as possible.
It was only then I noticed — right next to where we had parked, a large chartered bus was sitting.
That meant at least 45 people had come.
"Companies often rent pensions for workshops... Noona didn't think of that."
"A workshop?"
No, that wasn't what mattered right now.
First, we needed to start the car and get out of here fast.
This wasn't some zombie post-apocalypse escape simulation...
After escaping the pension, we made one request to the manager at the bottom of the mountain.
If anyone else asked where the people from the east pension went, we asked him to lie and say no one ever came, and what on earth were they talking about.
You might ask why we would do something like that, but it wasn't just because we wanted to play a prank.
We considered it punishment for disturbing our date.
"Won't that make things a bit eerie? What if some weird rumor spreads?"
"Ah, it's fine. We were never here today."
I said that and chuckled.
People are wired to feel tremendous fear when something that was right beside them just moments ago suddenly vanishes.
It could be a mystery thriller, or it could be a romance story.
*
Fortunately, since I had already thought about emptying the pension and moving to a hotel yesterday, I had made a reservation in advance.
It was practically a same-day reservation, so the cost ran a bit high, but when I thought about enjoying things like the spa or a massage,
I really went to town swinging my card like a blade.
How much did I spend?
It seemed my sense of financial discipline had been completely shattered, too.
It was a five-star hotel near the sea, so it was comparable to the hotel we stayed at in Ganghwado last time.
Of course, I would only know for sure once we got there, but since the price difference was so huge, the class would be different too.
"But can we bring the dogs in there?"
"Ah. Right."
I hadn't thought of that.
If it was a place where dogs couldn't enter, then our Lil' One and Pipsqueak wouldn't be able to go in!
As I fumbled to pull out my phone, A-ra smiled brightly, finding it cute.
Please... please... let it be a place where dogs are allowed...
"He... Hello? I made a reservation at this hotel last night, but is it possible to bring a pet dog?"
- If you bring a vaccination certificate, change to the dog companion package, and pay a damage deposit at check-in, you are welcome to enter at any time.
They were asking for a lot of things.
Still, I had brought the vaccination certificate just in case, and changing to the dog-something package wasn't difficult either.
In fact, I was just grateful that we could bring the dogs in at all.
"That's a relief... Then, um... Please change it to the dog companion package at the same grade."
- Please wait a moment. Are you Mr. Yoo Seong-hwan?
"Yes, that's correct."
- The change has been completed. We will assist you with the additional payment in the hotel lobby. And you may bring up to two dogs.
If we had three, that would have been a disaster.
I ended the call and let out a sigh of relief. Noticing things had worked out, A-ra spoke to me.
"What did they say?"
"If we bring the vaccination certificate and upgrade the room, we can bring up to two dogs in."
"Wow... So hotels accept dogs these days."
"That probably just means there are more people keeping dogs these days."
As single-person households increased, the number of people living alone who kept dogs was also rising.
I couldn't judge whether it was a good thing or a bad thing,
but I felt like I could tell things were heading in a good direction.
"Then what about cats, are they not allowed?"
"Well... Do you want to keep a cat?"
"A Munchkin cat... I do want to keep one."
A Munchkin — wasn't that a cat with big round eyes and a short, stubby build?
Would it get along well with Lil' One and Pipsqueak?
"If noona genuinely wants to keep one, wouldn't that be okay?"
Watching A-ra take care of Pipsqueak, she truly cared for him like her own son.
Sometimes she would wrap him up in something like a baby carrier and gently rock him to sleep on her back.
Anyone could see she was a person fully qualified to care for an animal.
And beyond that — wasn't she qualified enough to raise a baby, even?
A-ra would be a kind and wonderful mother.
I could guarantee it.