“Yeah.”
“You sleep too.”
Eorin reached out and pulled the lever, reclining my seat back as well. Eorin patted my shoulder a couple of times, then closed his eyes and started breathing evenly before long. He seemed very tired. The retreat hadn’t even started yet.
Swoosh. When the car tilted, Eorin’s head touched my shoulder. I felt the skin on my shoulder stand on end. It felt a little ticklish and also somewhat tingly. I slowly relaxed.
“……”
The vanilla scent slowly drifted. Buried in the warm temperature and fragrance, my eyes also gradually closed.
As soon as we arrived, what I felt was the crisp clear air, just like the crisp clear weather. I opened my eyes sluggishly at Eorin’s touch shaking my shoulder, and got off the bus half-asleep, gathering my bag. The other kids’ faces looked no different.
We immediately gathered in the auditorium and sat by class. After all classes up to Class 10 entered the auditorium, the opening ceremony began right away. After saluting the flag and singing the national anthem, while they were introducing the training center and instructors, someone started chatting and immediately received punishment exercises. Only then did the retreat feel real. I clearly felt why the event was called a retreat and not a summer camp or friendship trip. For me, who hadn’t gone on a retreat in middle school, it was an unfamiliar experience.
“Did you all come here to play? The opening ceremony is no different from the school’s first impression. Is Haebam High such a pathetic school?”
When the instructor pressed with sharp words, the atmosphere sank. I was a bit scared and intimidated, just panting, but I heard small complaints and curses around me. Saying things like they’re doing that again, this is getting old now, I came here to play. The voices didn’t reach the instructor, but it seemed impressive that they had the energy to complain even while receiving punishment exercises.
After a few more punishment exercises, as soon as the opening ceremony ended, phones were confiscated along with a belongings inspection. The teacher’s words that the instructors would be strict were true. Somehow knowing, the instructors caught everything without exception, from alcohol hidden in juice to cigarettes in snack boxes. The kids who got caught crawled with their heads down, avoiding their homeroom teacher’s glare, and the teachers sighed each time a kid from their class got caught.
When the belongings inspection was proceeding in order from Class 10, someone next to me poked me. It was a Class 6 kid. Since I hardly knew anyone from other classes, it was surely our first meeting, but somehow I felt like I’d seen them somewhere. Had we passed each other? That kid looked around briefly and said,
“Hey.”
“Hm?”
“Don’t look this way and speak quietly. Take this.”
While keeping their gaze elsewhere, the kid held something out to me. When I received it, it was a cigarette pack. As I couldn’t hide my flustered face and stammered, the kid put their index finger to their lips.
“Shh, shh, what if we get caught!”
“……”
“Sorry, I’m asking a favor. If you return it to me right after our class inspection ends, you won’t get caught either. Okay?”
Since I had absolutely no immunity to this kind of thing, I was floundering when the kid tried to say something more. But Eorin, who was sitting next to me, noticed the situation and grabbed my wrist as I held the cigarettes, not knowing what to do.
“What are you doing right now?”
“……”
“Don’t ask for things like this. Hiding it means you know it’s wrong. If you brought it, take responsibility. Don’t push it onto him.”
Eorin spoke quietly in a low voice. Even if it was the right thing to say, there were many people who would get angry when pointed out to their face. The Class 6 kid’s face had turned bright red, but in a situation where other kids would have already exchanged curses. Were they holding back and letting it go because it was Eorin? At school, there was no noticeable preferential treatment for Eorin, and Eorin acted no differently from an ordinary high school student, but Kim Eorin, the external grandson of Haebam Group, had power in name alone. At least within this small space called school.
The Class 6 kid took back the cigarette pack that had been in my hand. Not having the courage to look at the Class 6 kid, I lowered my head and murmured to Eorin. Thanks.
Even saying the right thing required courage. In that regard, I thought Eorin looked cool, and on the other hand, I was very envious. Because he had both the power and courage to confidently say the right thing. My thoughts suddenly flowed to Eorin’s background, then I hurriedly shook off the thought. The feeling of envying a friend’s background felt uncomfortable. I felt it was rude to Eorin. I apologized to Eorin in my heart. An inferiority complex wasn’t good.
In the end, the Class 6 kid had the cigarettes confiscated during the belongings inspection. I felt a gaze from the side, but I deliberately ignored it in case they got angry at me.
There were kids from our class who got caught too—one kid brought alcohol and two got caught for bringing cards. The kid who brought alcohol had put liquor in a plastic beverage bottle, and it seemed they were going to make an excuse that the opened traces were from drinking a little on the way, but the instructor opened the cap and smelled it, so they got caught without fail.
“Starting with the belongings inspection, this is the state of things. I’m very disappointed from our first meeting.”
The instructor scolded in a blunt voice. The auditorium with over 300 kids gathered became quiet. The instructor told us to first go to our rooms, unpack, change into gym clothes, and assemble immediately. The kids, thoroughly intimidated by the instructor, quietly kept their mouths shut and headed to their rooms.
We had formed groups at school in advance, with twelve people per group, and we’d use one room for all three days. It was fortunate that it wasn’t by number order and we could form groups with friends we were close to. As soon as our room door closed, the kids who put down their bags each said a word—the instructor is scary, I didn’t know they’d take our phones, he’d probably be handsome if he took off his hat.
After changing clothes, we suddenly hiked a mountain. Since the instructors would warn us if we made a fuss, we couldn’t go chattering noisily, so the mountain hike became a silent practice. It wasn’t that high a mountain, and it was enough to walk to the summit in a little over an hour. As we were hiking in a single file line, by the time we reached the summit, kids from the earlier classes who were coming back down after taking photos at the top passed by us, and friends of Eorin, Junsu, and Woojin who had gotten familiar with my face while coming and going also sneakily waved their hands at me. I also waved my hand and smiled secretly from the instructors.
As soon as the mountain hike ended, we came right back and gathered in the auditorium for physical training, repeating PT exercises countless times. Only when sweat dripped from my chin did the rolling around disguised as physical training end, and next was dinner. Woojin’s face, which had been full of anticipation, withered at the radish soup and stir-fried squid on the meal tray.
“They roll us around like that and don’t give us meat.”
Since the instructors were standing in the cafeteria designating even where to sit, Woojin voiced his complaint small enough not to be heard over there.
“It’s no different from the middle school retreat.”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“My thighs are tight……”
“I’m going to be sore all over tomorrow.”
I usually played basketball sometimes, but that was different from this. My arms and legs were already all aching. They said we wouldn’t have time to play at night, and really, it seemed like I could fall asleep immediately if I just spread out my blanket and put my head on the pillow. Compared to other kids, maybe because I usually went to bed early, I was more tired. Actually, excluding basketball, my amount of exercise was extremely low. Walking about 10 minutes during commuting to and from school was the longest I walked in a day.
“What are we doing after eating?”
“The schedule says recreation.”
“Oh, then is it a talent show?”
“No, that’s tomorrow night. Today seems to be something else.”
While I was dozing off, listening to the kids’ conversation in one ear and out the other, Eorin gently shook me awake.
“Chiwon-ah, you can’t sleep.”
“Mmm.”
“Look at him dozing while holding his spoon.”
At the sound of “click,” I opened my eyes. I thought I’d really been photographed, but it was Junsu making the sound with his mouth. When I blinked, remembering that phones had been confiscated, Junsu laughed. It sounded exactly like a real camera sound.
“Did you just make that sound with your mouth?”
“Yeah. ‘Click.'”
“……Where did you even learn that.”
“It’s the same, right?”
While Woojin and Eorin admired Junsu’s unheard-of and unseen talent, I got up from my seat to wake myself up.
“I’ll get some water and come back.”
“Okay.”
The water purifier was in the very corner of the cafeteria, next to the meal tray return area. I pulled out a small cone-shaped paper cup with a pop and drank water, then wondered if I should give some to the kids too, so I was about to return after scooping about two cups when suddenly something caught my foot.
“Uh, ah!”
I stepped hard to avoid falling, and in the process spilled the water I was holding. Since the cups were small, there wasn’t much water so my clothes didn’t get very wet, but setting aside being startled, embarrassment rushed over me. I hurriedly straightened up to return to my seat. It was fortunate at least that I hadn’t fallen.
But I heard someone giggling. I unconsciously turned my head, and there was Kim Jaeui’s friend. That kid seemed to have tripped me. And next to him, Kim Jaeui was also there, staring intently at me. After looking at the face of the kid who had tripped me for a moment, I moved my feet to return to my seat. I deliberately didn’t look at Kim Jaeui. I didn’t pay attention to those kids’ mocking words like “he must be fucking embarrassed,” “hey, he’s ignoring us.”
“Chiwon-ah, is your sleeve wet?”
“Yeah. I spilled water…… I’m fine.”
Seeing me return and sit down, Junsu asked. I made a motion of shaking out my sleeve. This much was nothing. Fortunately, my friends seemed not to have seen anything. The fact that I hadn’t shown them that pathetic sight just now gave me relief, and just having friends I didn’t want to show such things to in the future and a place to return to gave me courage.
After eating dinner, we headed to the auditorium again for recreation. The first night’s recreation was gathering in the auditorium to play games like building human towers or throwing hula hoops. Each class became one team to participate in the games, and if they beat other classes, they earned cooperation points. They said that adding the points earned from tomorrow’s recreation, the class with the highest cooperation points would be exempted from roll call tomorrow night. Like kids from other classes, our class kids really attacked with fire in their eyes. Since they didn’t disclose the score tally, we couldn’t know for sure, but it was certain that our class was at least in the upper ranks.
