The Thing That Happened During The School Trip (4)
Hey guys! Sorry, this chapter was a long time in coming. >< please="">
Edited by the lovely Nexus Flameheart
Characters mentioned:
Seung-ho: The main character
Ji-eun: Injured female student from last chapter
Ha-eun: Vice-president of the cla.s.s
Park Han-seung: The king of bullies who also has Seung-ho"s back
Chang-min: Part of Seung-ho"s friend group
Sang-hyup: Part of Seung-ho"s friend group; knows how to cook
Sang-wook: Part of Seung-ho"s friend group
Seul-hwa: Sits next to Seung-ho in cla.s.s, knows how to cook curry
Jin-seun: Seung-ho"s cla.s.smate
Sung-yun: Part of Seung-ho"s friend group
Geum-taek: Part of Seung-ho"s friend group; can"t wait for his food to cool down
"Did she make it down alright?"
As soon as he arrived at the lodge, he thought of Ji-eun. While he"d met up and talked with his cla.s.smates on the mountaintop, Ji-eun had disappeared before he"d realised it.
"Well, I"m sure she arrived just fine."
Seung-ho shook his head and brushed off those thoughts. At that moment, Ha-eun tapped Seung-ho"s shoulder.
"Why"d you call me?"
"The teacher said to wash up and go down to the cafeteria to get ready for dinner by 6."
"Cafeteria? Ah, the place with the cooking equipment laid out?"
"Yeah. Not the cafeteria but the cooking place. Sorry."
"It"s fine. See you later."
"Yeah."
After delivering the news to Ha-eun, who was the cla.s.s vice-president, Seung-ho returned to his cla.s.s"s lodgings as well. Inside, the simultaneous chattering of close to 20 male students was causing chaos.
Seung-ho cleared his throat and spoke.
"Guys, they said to wash up and go out by 6."
However, there was no way anyone had heard him when it was this loud. He was now used to greeting in cla.s.s, but taking control of situations like these were still beyond him.
"Guys."
Just then, he made eye contact with Park Han-seung, who had been coming inside from smoking outside. Due to the overwhelming smell of the cigarette smoke, Seung-ho almost made a face before he"d realised it.
"Hey!"
As Park Han-seung yelled with a resounding voice, the lodge became quiet in an instant.
"The cla.s.s president is talking."
Seung-ho looked at Han-seung with respect in his eyes. So cool. He himself wanted to act with such charisma as well.
Everyone"s gaze unanimously turned to Seung-ho. Seung-ho blushed, but spoke without stuttering.
"The teacher said to wash up and meet at the cooking place by 6. He said that we"re making our own dinner."
Han-seung nodded and looked at Seung-ho.
"Is something wrong?"
Nervous, Seung-ho gulped. He didn"t know it when he received attention in cla.s.s, but who knew that the gaze of only 20 people could be this fl.u.s.tering?
"I-I"m done."
Seung-ho may have been finished, but the others didn"t say a word in case they got chewed out by Park Han-seung.
"What are we making?"
"They said we"re making curry."
"Ah, I hate curry though."
After saying those words, Han-seung went back to the place with his luggage. It was after Han-seung had laid down at his place that conversations started up again, one or two at a time.
Seung-ho awkwardly returned to the place with his group as well.
"Oh, you"re here."
"I was so scared just now that I almost wet myself."
"Be quiet. He might hear you."
Chang-min handed over Seung-ho"s bag.
"Hurry and take your clothes out. Let"s go wash."
"Huh? Right."
Now that he was paying attention, he noticed that his friends had gotten their clothes ready before they"d played. Feeling great about the fact that they"d waited for him, Seung-ho felt his mood lift.
"Ah, this is really like the army, right?"
"Someone might think that we came back from the army."
"No, I saw it on "Fake Guys". This looks the same as the barracks or the residence halls."
Sang-hyup and Sang-wook were in a heated argument. While taking out his underwear, Seung-ho joined the conversation.
"This lodge looks like that?"
"Yeah. It"s completely the same. I"m telling you, it"s totally an army residence hall."
"What kind of significance does that have? Let"s just hurry and wash up."
As soon as Seung-ho finished taking out his clothes, the kids all stood up and thundered toward the showers. As expected of a camping ground, the 20-person lodging, bathrooms, and showers were all communal.
When they reached the shower room, the guys stood in front of the lockers and started stripping naturally. However, Seung-ho felt embarra.s.sed for no reason and hesitated.
It was because memories of when he"d been fat and been teased by the others over his stretch marks had suddenly popped up.
"What are you doing? Let"s hurry and go in."
"Are you pretending to be expensive?"
"Is Seung-ho embarra.s.sed because he"s a Cheetos?"
"I"m not!"
It had been small due to being buried by flesh before, but it had become average after he"d lost weight and grown.
He hurriedly took off his clothes in case the guys teased him more.
"Ah, it"s normal."
"Of course. If Seung-ho had been big there as well, he would totally have been a fraud character."
"The G.o.d is fair, hahaha."
"Hey, are you guys looking down on me?"
Along with an infuriated Seung-ho, the guys entered the shower room.
-----
"Curry?"
"No one but Sang-hyup knows how to cook, though."
"Seung-ho, you can"t either, right?"
"Yeah."
Since they were supposed to cook their dinner in groups of 6, the six of them naturally went together. However, the problem was that only one of them knew how to cook.
"But I"ve never made curry, either."
"We"re doomed."
"Should we just eat it raw?"
"Let"s not overreact and do at least something. Ah, Seul-hwa cooks well, right?"
"Right. She attends a cooking academy."
The gaze of five guys unanimously turned to Seung-ho.
"Why? What?"
"You"re close with Seul-hwa."
"Go get the recipe from her."
Seung-ho shook his head and stubbornly refused.
"It might look like we"re close, but Seul-hwa was someone who used to bully me every day."
However, the five kids made eye contact amongst themselves, nodded, and grabbed onto Seung-ho"s arms and legs.
"Go and learn!"
"Ah, I don"t want to!"
"Who else among us is close to a girl?"
"Why does it have to be me?"
No matter how strong Seung-ho was, he couldn"t use all of his strength and thus was dragged to the front of the girls" cooking area.
"There she is."
"Ah, fine. I"ll go by myself."
As soon as he said those words, the guys released the hands that were holding on to Seung-ho. Caught off-balance, Seung-ho stumbled backwards.
"Ha, there"s nothing I can do if she doesn"t give me the recipe, okay?"
"She"ll 100% give it to you."
"There"s no way she isn"t giving it to you. Even if it wasn"t her, the girls will probably try to be the one to tell you."
"Nonsense."
"We"ll get the ingredients ready, so go and learn it well."
Leaving the guys to go back to the male cooking area, Seung-ho shook his head and went into the girls" cooking area without a choice.
Thankfully, a few male students from other cla.s.ses had come and were chatting with the female students. A part of them had probably come to learn the recipe, just like Seung-ho. Of course, there were those who were talking with a goal of a relationship or something similar in mind.
As he looked around and walked around the cooking area, the female students saw Seung-ho and began whispering.
"Isn"t that Seung-ho?"
"Woah, is he here to meet his girlfriend?"
"Seung-ho"s single, okay?"
"What are you talking about? He"s the one who"ll become my boyfriend."
He could hear all the embarra.s.sing things. Fl.u.s.tered, Seung-ho ducked his head and glanced up intermittently as he searched for the 7th cla.s.s students.
"Ah, Seung-ho!"
Surprised to be called, Seung-ho looked to the side and saw Choi Seul-hwa warmly waving her hand.
"Thankfully, I don"t need to find her."
Half glad, half nervous, Seung-ho approached the group that Seul-hwa was in. The gazes of the female students had been locked on him since a while ago, but due to Seul-hwa calling his name the number of gazes increased.
"What are you doing here?"
"Uh… Our group doesn"t know how to make curry…"
"Ah, really?"
At that moment, the female students standing next to them joined the conversation.
"It"s alright. A lot of students from other cla.s.ses came as well."
"Yeah, we were starting to get bored, so it"s a good thing."
"Curry isn"t hard at all, so you"ll be able to do it."
Seul-hwa smiled affectionately and started to explain.
"She"s pretty when she smiles."
Still, repulsion toward Seul-hwa didn"t go away. It would have been weirder if the nagging he"d received for over a year had disappeared just because she was being a little nice to him now.
"...just boil it like that."
"Ah."
Seung-ho had his mouth open and a blank look on his face.
"You didn"t understand it, right?"
"Yeah."
With an apologetic expression, Seung-ho sullenly nodded his head.
"Do you have something to write on?"
"Seul-hwa, can"t you just send it through Talk?"
As Jin-seun spoke up from beside them, Seul-hwa let out an "Ah!" sound and looked at Seung-ho.
"Yeah, I"ll send it to you through Talk."
"I handed in my phone, though."
Seung-ho held out both his hands, signifying that he didn"t have his phone. His old habit of doing exactly what the teacher ordered still remained.
"Oh my G.o.d, why did you hand it in?"
"They probably won"t even check."
"Didn"t you guys hand it in?"
"You"re probably the only one from our cla.s.s to hand it in. So the only phone in the basket that I saw back then was yours."
Seung-ho let out a feigned smile with a dumbfounded expression.
"Sang-wook and those rascals should have told me."
Those friends had also never thought that Seung-ho would have handed it in.
"Say, Seung-ho. Do you want to try this? Our group made it."
Suddenly, the group that had been cooking nearby poured some curry into a plate and scooped some up for Seung-ho.
"Are they feeding me this?"
Seung-ho"s face flushed red in an instant. To think that someone was scooping up some food and feeding it to him. He"d thought that was something only couples did.
"I-I can eat it myself."
Receiving the spoon that the female student was holding out, he put it cleanly into his mouth. Since he ate properly cooked rice that just been made which had slightly been topped with curry, there was no way it wasn"t delicious.
"It"s so good."
"Yeah? That"s good. Hohoho."
To the other female students, the girl was flirting no matter who looked. Seul-hwa tried to call Seung-ho in order to tell him the recipe again, but someone else found their way there.
"Seung-ho, do you want to try ours, too?"
Now not just the same cla.s.s, but other cla.s.ses as well were finding their way over, holding plates of curry. Seung-ho couldn"t refuse and started to eat them all.
"What are they doing?"
As if annoyed, Seul-hwa pulled a cross expression, but then looked around and was surprised. The gazes of the other students were all looking this way, and those far away were hurriedly scooping up curry and bringing it over.
"How did they make curry already?"
"They arrived first because we came according to cla.s.s number."
"Ah, this is so annoying."
However, if she showed her irritation here, her image would fall to rock bottom with not only Seung-ho, but of course the others as well. Left without a choice, Seul-hwa could do nothing but watch on with an irritated expression.
-----
"Ah, Seung-ho isn"t coming back after going to learn the recipe."
"Try contacting him."
"His phone is off, though."
"Ah, where did he go off to? He"s chatting with the girls, isn"t he?"
"Thirty minutes have pa.s.sed."
Although the 5 kids had finished preparing the ingredients and cooking the rice, Seung-ho still hadn"t come.
"Should we go look for him?"
"Let"s go. Dinner time might be over if we stay here."
The moment Sang-wook and the others started to leave the cooking area, they could see Seung-ho off in the distance.
"Now he comes."
"Is he carrying something?"
"It looks heavy even from here."
As they slowly approached Seung-ho, he was walking over while carrying a large pot and groaning.
"Hey, hold this."
"What is it?"
When Sung-yun received the large pot, he could feel the incredible weight in full.
"That"s not the problem - we don"t time to make curry."
"What were you up to?"
Seung-ho, with a triumphant expression, didn"t say a word and merely smiled.
"b.a.s.t.a.r.d, why are you being disgusting and only smiling?"
As Sung-yun arduously lifted the pot onto the counter, Seung-ho grinned and lifted the lid. The strong fragrance of the still-warm curry stimulated their noses.
"What is this?"
"Where did you get it from?"
"Did you steal it because you didn"t want to ask, by any chance?"
"Hey, as if I would do that."
Seung-ho tapped the pot and spoke.
"The girls gave it me to me."
"What?"
"They gave all of it to you?"
He"d told the truth, but the guys didn"t believe him.
"Since the girls were giving me a scoopful and telling me to try what they made anyway, I just brought it."
"Crazy."
"Are you saying that the girls gave you this much?"
"Yeah."
Seung-ho calmly nodded his head. However, Sang-hyup sighed with loathing.
"Hey, if you mix curry from here and there, won"t the taste have gone weird?"
"Yeah? It was tasty when I ate it from them."
Geum-taek had already scooped a bowl of rice, poured a little curry on top, and was putting a spoon into his mouth. Letting out a "Hothot" sound, he ate it deliciously.
"Of course. The tastes were probably completely separate in your mouth."
When Sang-hyup heard this, he supposed the words were right. Although Seung-ho had gladly brought over the pot, it seemed as if the taste, with the curry from over 10 different places unified, would have mixed and been a disaster.
"No, it"s f**cking delicious."
Geum-taek gave a thumbs-up and spoke to Seung-ho and the others.
"It"s d*mn delicious, really."
At Geum-taek"s words, the guys put a spoonful of hot white rice into their bowl, poured some curry on top, and began to eat.
"Woah, this is really good."
"Let"s not cook a different one. Just this will be enough."
"It looks like Sang-hyup won"t have to cook, right?"
"Even if I did, it would probably be less tasty than this."
"I wish I were born handsome as well."
"Just eat what you get."
"Seung-ho, hurry up and eat."
Seung-ho"s face glowed instantly, and he got a bowl of rice as well and began to eat next to the guys.