Chapter 72
Chapter 72
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 72
Chapter Title: Buyeo Academic Field Trip
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The place we're heading to for the academic field trip is Buyeo County in South Chungcheong Province.
It was a distance that would take roughly three hours by bus.
Sitting next to me was Sihyun.
For reference, Soo-yeon and Na-yeon sat right behind me.
"Sis, sis. What do you want to eat?"
"Huh? What is it?"
"Jelly."
"Can you give me just one?"
I took a small jelly from Sihyun's hand.
A jelly from a famous overseas brand. I have memories of eating it often in all sorts of ways... but lately, I haven't been eating it much.
Thinking about it suddenly, the frequency of eating anything has definitely dropped sharply.
Since my body doesn't require mandatory meals to begin with, my appetite itself feels greatly reduced.
That doesn't mean I hate eating though—if something sweet like this comes up, I just gobble it down without a second thought.
"Thanks, it's delicious. Oh, you know there's a group presentation after the field trip ends, right?"
"Yeah."
"I might have something come up then, so just in case, I'll send you the presentation script and stuff."
Once the group presentations are done, we dive into finals prep for real.
The semester feels like it's flown by way too fast in every way.
"Got it."
"I'll do the presentation if I can, but lately things keep popping up..."
As I said that and clicked my tongue, Sihyun gave me a reassuring smile, like there was nothing to worry about.
"Don't worry. I don't get nervous when presenting."
"Oh, that's pretty great? Before I mutated, I always got shaky for some reason and had to pop calming pills."
"Do those actually work?"
"Not even a little. I shook just the same."
"Ah..."
Anyway, we chatted away like that until we hit the rest area... took a short break there, set off again, and eventually arrived in Buyeo County.
We arrived at the field trip site, rented out lodging, unpacked our stuff there, and followed the professors' lead.
Of course, the elders who spotted me jumped in surprise along the way.
Naturally, quite a few recognized me right away. Not surprising at all.
Rural elders aren't exactly TV-free, and my story's been plastered everywhere.
They seemed amazed, saying they never imagined the kid from TV showing up here.
Anyway, brushing off those little incidents, we kicked off the field trip proper.
As for the groups... they were just familiar faces. Sihyun, Soo-yeon, Na-yeon. The four of us together.
Probably set it up like that so the two upperclassmen could look after the two underclassmen. Plus, we all knew each other anyway.
Right after grouping, a professor got assigned to tag along with us.
For reference, the professor with us was Professor Hong Jeong-tae.
He was the one who'd grilled me with questions back when I first came out as a mutant in the department. Even after that, curiosity must've kicked in, because he kept asking about dragon traits and such.
"Oh..."
He nodded along to something, then started jotting notes in his notepad.
"What's that?"
It was a bit rude to ask, but Professor scratched the back of his head and explained.
"Haha, I've been analyzing the differences between mutants and the beings that show up in all these modern legends, myths, folktales, and the like being passed around."
"Ah... Putting it in a paper?"
"Who knows. There's more overlap than you'd think... but turning it into something publishable will take more time."
Oh... Sounds like he's cooking up a fun paper. I nodded along enthusiastically.
"Ah, by the way, Miss Seo-hyun. You've run into a bunch of mutants so far—if it's not too rude, could you tell me about their abilities or anything?"
"Uh... I'll check with them first. If it's for a published paper, seems like the mutants I mention would need to okay it."
"Much appreciated. Ah, now let's get this field trip underway proper."
The moment the survey kicked off, our first target was the oldest elder at the seniors' center.
What we're researching right now is actual speech patterns from the liberation era, after all.
"Eh... What? Ah, aah! That?"
With that, the elder shared all sorts of stories with us.
From the Japanese colonial era to liberation—what songs people mostly hummed, what words they used... We recorded it all, then held a discussion based on the elder's tales.
By the time we'd wrapped up that whole round, evening had snuck up on us. Time really flies.
* * *
The second dinner time hit, the students dove into their vendor-delivered lunchboxes with cheers and laughter. Looked like the student council fees weren't wasted—the quality was pretty solid.
"The lunchbox setup's not bad at all, huh?"
"Ugh, I nearly died finding this place. Every single cheap option had trash quality, so I bumped up the budget per head, but even after that, tons still had weird quality..."
Na-yeon, munching away next to me, vented to me.
"You worked hard. Feels like the student fees were worth it."
"Nowadays, if you don't keep it transparent, all hell breaks loose. Wasn't there that thing with the neighboring uni's student council prez? Embezzling fees and causing a huge scandal."
"Yeah? I'm not really into student council stuff..."
"It just happened, yeah. Ahf..."
"Anything else on the schedule besides today's presentation?"
"Nope, nope. Free time after that! The TAs and profs'll drink on their own, and we'll drink among ourselves. Oh, sis is on fruit again today, right?"
"Yeah, sure. I don't get drunk anyway to begin with. Oh, but where am I sleeping? The girls' room, seriously?"
"Then what, the boys' room? You're a girl right now, sis."
"...True enough, but."
"Just crash here. Nobody's gonna care anyway. Not like you're turning back into a guy."
Every word rang true—no way to argue back.
* * *
After dinner, we did our prepared presentations for real.
The professors looked pretty satisfied.
Good content structure, and we even hummed the melodies the elder sang ourselves—of course the reaction was solid.
Anyway, once presentations wrapped, drinking parties sprang up all over the place.
I stuck as close as possible to Kim Na-yeon, Lee Sihyun, and Nam Soo-yeon to hang out.
While doing that, a few 16th-class juniors close to Na-yeon wandered over.
"Ah, hi..."
"Hey, Hee-jin~ What's up?"
"Ah, um..."
"Gonna say hi to Seo-hyun sis?"
"Y-Yes."
"Sis, this is Yoo Hee-jin—she's the cutest in the 16th class."
"Oh, yeah?"
She looked super tense, so I flashed a smile at the girl called Hee-jin.
Even if Na-yeon gets along with pretty much everyone, there's gotta be a reason she's this chummy.
I generally don't like the 16th class much, but it's not like they're all the same...
As long as I don't get tangled with Sung Yoon-hwan and his crew, it's fine.
"Hi."
"Pl-Please, speak casually..."
"Ah, I'm kinda shy with new people. I did formal speech with Na-yeon, Sihyun, and Soo-yeon at first too."
"Ah..."
"So, I'll go casual once we're closer?"
"Ah, yep!"
A bit scatterbrained, but in a cute small-animal way.
The type that gets adored no matter where she is, I guess?
Her personality seemed nice and rounded, no rough edges.
As I chatted back and forth with Hee-jin, drinking games were kicking off all around.
Of course, I just spectated happily.
Oh... Black Knight. She into him?
With those trivial thoughts, I watched the 16th-class kids play.
Stuff like this is always fun to watch.
Na-yeon, Sihyun, and Soo-yeon were just spectating the drinking games too.
"You guys not doing drinking games?"
"Kinda tired..."
"Me too. Long trips have been too long ago..."
Sihyun and Soo-yeon looked half-asleep from exhaustion.
"If you're tired, go crash inside."
"Ah, no, not tired enough to sleep—just wanna hang like this."
Saying that, the two snuggled right up to my sides.
"I that likable?"
"Yeah..."
Hearing it straight from them somehow felt embarrassing. What makes me so great?
"Oh my, oh my."
"Oh my what... Ah, wanna use my tail as a pillow?"
"Tail!?"
Suddenly, their fatigued eyes snapped wide open, sparkling. Scary.
"Wh-Why?"
"No, just... You've never shown your tail even once."
"Have I not?"
"You haven't."
"...Ah, right, never pulled it out in front of you guys? After showing it once on that variety show, I kinda lost any hesitation."
"You showed your tail on a variety show?"
"Yeah. One of my super cute colleagues asked to see it."
"Oh... Who?"
"There's one. Yoo Ha-rin."
"...Huh? Wait, that... Fairy-type mutant?"
At that point, Hee-jin piped up like it was a topic she knew well.
"Huh? You know her?"
"Yeeah..."
That reaction you get when someone you know super well comes up.
"How do you know her?"
"She's my cousin... We're same-age cousins, so we're close..."
Ah, so that's why she wanted to chat with me.
Since her cousin's a bureau agent.
"...Korea's seriously tiny."
"Yeah, tell me about it."
"What, Hee-jin, you have a mutant cousin?"
"Yeeah. Ah, anyway... Pl-please take good care of Ha-rin. She's got a bit of a scatterbrained side..."
She was full-on big-sis mode. Ha-rin being scatterbrained?
"Ha-rin scatterbrained? She seemed super mature."
"That's a facade. She whines nonstop whenever she's with me."
"Oho..."
Now that's an interesting story.
"Um, sis?"
Right then, I felt Sihyun's finger poking my side.
"Yeah? What, Sihyun?"
"Th-The tail..."
"Ah, tail? Got it. Hold on."
With that, I pulled out my tail. The kids jumped at how it burst out suddenly.
"Wow... It's huge! Can I touch it?"
"Isn't that why I pulled it out?"
The moment I gave permission, they started stroking my tail. Wow, amazing—exclamations nonstop from their mouths.
Is my tail really that addictively textured? I couldn't help tilting my head.