After roll call ended, the kids spread out their blankets in the largest room and gathered close together to lie down. Seeing there was one more room, it seemed like originally they were supposed to split up into groups to sleep comfortably, but we decided to all sleep together. The voices chatting were quiet because if we talked loudly, the instructors patrolling outside would give us punishment exercises. There weren’t many streetlights around the training center, and our room was on the 5th floor so there wasn’t much light coming in through the window, making the room very dark, but Roh Jinho, who was in the same room, crawled toward his bag and rustled around for a while before taking out an iPad and turning on the light.
“Didn’t they take that during the belongings inspection?”
“Yeah. I think they didn’t take it because they’d have to take responsibility if there were problems after confiscating it, so it would be troublesome. They just told me to keep it well.”
Roh Jinho also opened snacks he’d brought with the iPad. The fact that we’d brushed our teeth earlier wasn’t a problem for the kids.
“Didn’t we score a lot of points today?”
“I don’t know for sure, but we’re definitely in the upper ranks.”
The kids grinned.
“Is tomorrow’s recreation well prepared?”
“Don’t worry. They were in a dance club in middle school. I saw them practice and they’re fucking amazing.”
“Good. What’s left are the cheering points and game points.”
“We will definitely win.”
The kids fired up their motivation. What the kids huddled together at bedtime were chattering about wasn’t anything else but the games happening tomorrow. I asked, feeling a bit puzzled.
“Are the prizes that good? It’s just not having roll call……”
As soon as I said that, all the kids in the room looked at me at once. When I flinched and blinked, someone sighed.
“Woojin-ah, you didn’t tell Chiwon?”
“Tell him what?”
“……He doesn’t know either?”
“Kim Eorin, Na Junsu, why didn’t you guys tell him?”
“How do we tell them? Looking at their innocent faces, the words won’t come out.”
“That’s…… true. Right……”
“What? What is it?”
“……?”
Only Woojin and I had bewildered faces. Roh Jinho pulled the iPad toward himself and grinned while whispering to us.
“Listen carefully. Not having roll call means the instructors don’t know who’s in the room.”
“Yeah.”
“And they also don’t know what we’re doing in the room.”
“Yeah……?”
“So we’re going to do bad things!”
Yeon Jaejeong, who was next to Roh Jinho, hugged his pillow tightly and giggled. Yeon Jaejeong was that kid who had the alcohol confiscated during the belongings inspection earlier, and was a troublemaker who’d be sad if he were called second-best in class. His code matched well so he was quite close with Junsu and Roh Jinho, but actually, for Yeon Jaejeong, it was fair to say there was no one he wasn’t close with. He’d even play pranks on me, whom he’d barely talked to a few times.
“I got my alcohol confiscated earlier, right?”
“Yeah.”
“With how many people there are, would I have only brought that one bottle?”
I gaped. Seeing my expression, Yeon Jaejeong tried to burst into laughter but got blocked by Roh Jinho’s hand and only made muffled sounds. If the loud laughter was heard in the hallway, we’d definitely go out and receive punishment exercises.
“If we win first place tomorrow and get the roll call exemption, during the rest time before roll call, one or two kids from other rooms will gather here watching for the right moment. I went and checked, and this room is the biggest among our class’s rooms. And after all our classmates come…… we’ll have a party.”
“Strike up the music!”
“That’s what the roll call exemption is! That’s why everyone’s desperate to get it!”
“We’re not the only class that brought alcohol!”
“Shh, shh. Voices loud!”
At Eorin’s words, everyone shut their mouths tight and watched outside. Fortunately, the instructor’s footsteps weren’t heard.
“Then we’re…… drinking alcohol tomorrow?”
“Yeah. If we win first place, we’ll all drink together, and if not, let’s quietly drink among ourselves.”
“That’s a bad thing.”
“Yeah, it’s a bad thing.”
It’s a bad thing, Woojin giggled.
“Why is doing what we’re told not to do so exciting?”
“Oh my, what a coincidence, me too. I thought I was weird.”
“Oh my.”
Roh Jinho and Na Junsu put their hands on their chests as if surprised and imitated noblewomen, then laughed “hohoho” while making gestures of drinking tea or alcohol.
“Chiwon-ah, if you don’t want to drink, you don’t have to.”
Eorin, who had been watching me, whispered quietly in my ear. For a moment, my heart thumped. Was it because we were planning to do bad things?
“……No…… I want to try drinking.”
At my answer, Eorin also grinned. Seventeen years old. An age when bad things made your heart race and scheming was the most fun. When told not to do something, you wanted to do it more. On top of that, since the training center side kindly created a breakthrough for us, the kids resolved that they would win by any means necessary.
Unable to overcome the pouring sleepiness, I fell asleep first. It felt like I’d just closed my eyes for a moment, but it was already morning. I lay down for a while to chase away the sleepiness and looked around, and since it wasn’t wake-up time yet, no one was awake. I had slept between Junsu and Eorin, but for some reason Junsu was sleeping with his head pillowed on Woojin’s stomach next to him. It must be heavy, but Woojin didn’t make a single groan. I tucked Junsu in well with his blanket and looked at Eorin, who was sleeping with a rolled-up blanket under his head instead of a pillow, hugging the pillow to his chest. Was it a sleeping habit? I placed my pillow under Eorin’s head and spread out Eorin’s blanket again to cover him well. Even with the pillow changing, Eorin slept soundly.
Getting up from my spot, I opened the window. Cool and refreshing wind entered the room. It felt good to hear the birds chirping. I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, looked in the mirror, and combed my messy hair with my hand. Even after I washed my face and came out, the kids were sleeping well.
Without a phone, I couldn’t tell the time. Since there was no wall clock in the room either, I carefully checked the wrist of Eorin, who was hugging the pillow. They said wake-up time was 8 o’clock.
“6…… 48 minutes……”
So I had woken up early. Maybe because it became a habit to wake up early to prepare for school and feed the kids breakfast, I would automatically wake up from sleep when morning sunlight entered my eyes. What should I do with nothing to do? I carefully tried to return Eorin’s hand to the pillow.
But suddenly strength entered Eorin’s hand, and he grabbed my hand firmly and wouldn’t let go. I almost screamed in surprise but held it in.
“Eo…… Eorin-ah.”
“Why……”
“Hm?”
“Why…… are you holding my hand…… mmm.”
Eorin murmured while rubbing his face against the pillow I’d placed for him.
“Come here……”
Eorin pulled me in. Before I knew it, Eorin, who had removed the pillow from his arms, gave me an arm pillow, then pulled over the blanket to cover us and patted me. Since he hadn’t opened his eyes even once, I thought Eorin might not remember this moment.
Sleep didn’t come. But when I opened my eyes, Eorin’s face was right there, his gentle breath tickling as it reached me. Even after Eorin’s patting hand slowly subsided, I couldn’t get up from my spot and just kept my eyes tightly shut.
I heard giggling and clicking sounds. Thinking it was Junsu’s prank again, I shook my head meaning don’t do it, but something warm touched me. When I opened my eyes wondering what, what I saw was Eorin’s face.
“……?!”
When I was startled, laughter came from around me. Only then did I look around in all directions. The clicking sound wasn’t Junsu’s prank but the sound made by Roh Jinho’s iPad camera.
“Ah, you’re awake.”
Another clicking sound was heard. I hurriedly tried to cover the camera but it was already too late. Roh Jinho giggled and put away the iPad.
“Did you sleep well?”
Eorin said, lowering the hand that had been making a V sign at the camera.
“……You should have woken me too……”
“You were sleeping so well.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You didn’t wake me on purpose.”
“Did the photos come out well?”
“Yeah.”
“Send them to me later.”
Eorin grinned. It seemed photo time had been in full swing while I was sleeping. I sighed.
“But why was I sleeping on your pillow?”
“……Don’t know.”
I even kindly placed a pillow for you. When I turned my head away sharply, Eorin poked my cheek.
Woojin and Junsu barely opened their eyes when the wake-up music flowed from the speakers, and Junsu even then only woke up after getting his foot stepped on while kids were dancing to the idol song that happened to play. We all went to the cafeteria for breakfast, and after washing up, headed to the outdoor training ground. The activity schedule only said ‘Fun Activity’, but it was an activity of passing through giant wooden structures one by one. Crawling up slopes like rock climbing, crossing narrow swinging bridges, and coming down below on a line while hanging from handles—it was tougher than expected, completely different from the cute activity name. For me, it was quite difficult just starting from climbing up the wooden structure. It was because I had a fear of heights.
Each time I crossed a structure, I fixed my gaze on the face of the instructor on the other side. It meant please come quickly and rescue me if I fell. I crossed the horizontal bar by crawling using all my limbs, and on the swinging bridge, my legs trembled so the rope swayed mercilessly, so I practically ran halfway across. Later when I went down, Junsu teased me saying he thought he was watching an intangible cultural asset doing tightrope walking. It was fortunate I didn’t get videotaped since phones were confiscated. The last one was hanging from a handle and swooshing down below on a rope, but I couldn’t let go of the handle in time so the instructor had to catch me with his whole body. When I bowed repeatedly saying I was sorry and thank you, the instructor patted my back, and that’s when I actually realized that the instructors weren’t such scary people either.
Since it took a very long time for all the kids to pass through, while the earlier classes did the activity, the later classes learned rhythmic movements or something on another playground. After that we switched and we learned the rhythmic movements, and the instructor teaching the movements was good at jokes so we could do it while laughing noisily. And under that laughter, we sneakily chatted.
“I’m hungry.”
“Do you know the lunch menu?”
“It’s curry.”
“How do you know?”
“I smelled it earlier.”
“Ah, damn. If they just put broccoli in the curry.”
“I like it though.”
“Fucking disgusting. Nuclear disgusting.”
“I don’t care what it is, I hope there’s a meat side dish……”
“The menu is curry, what do you expect? For side dishes, well, pickled radish, kimchi, and yogurt will come out.”
Junsu’s prophecy was accurate. Eorin, who received his lunch tray, looked at Junsu and muttered ‘you ghostly bastard.’
