Chapter 109: Lesson

「Alright, everyone~ Luka-tan will be recharging for a week~」

「What? I look too happy about it?」

「No, no, no! You all get excited about vacations too! Why can’t I be happy about mine?!」

Watching yesterday’s clip again, I couldn’t help but smile.

Doah was completely right.

While she didn’t find streaming itself particularly burdensome, it was still work.

Her streams weren’t something she did out of boredom, but official ones agreed upon with the company.

She had once told me that she found it difficult to stream when she was busy or feeling down.

Hopefully, this trip would be a good healing experience for her.

“Oppa!”

I could hear Doah’s voice, calling me from the other side.

When I turned my gaze to see her, I couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

“Doah.”

“Yes?”

“Are you gonna move out somewhere?”

This girl had a small build to begin with, but her puffy padding made her look even smaller.

With a bag as big as military gear on top of that, she looked like a dwarf about to set off on a journey.

“What, no? I only packed the necessary stuff!”

“We’re only going for one night and two days, you know.”

What on earth did she even bring in that mountain of a bag?

“There are clothes, underwear, snacks, gloves, and also…“

She whined, as she listed everything she had packed.

“Here, you carry this then.”

As for mine, it was much lighter than hers.

Because it only contained underwear, a t-shirt, pajamas, and pants.

I figured that I’d just use whatever they had there or buy stuff we needed, like toiletries, when we got there, to avoid all the hassle.

“Huh? Don’t you have too little luggage, Oppa?”

“I mean, not that I have many things to bring.”

“Your bag is almost empty.”

She picked up my bag before shaking it up and down.

“Oppa, you’re not planning to abandon me and go somewhere else with such little luggage, are you?”

“As if I would. Baka Luka.”

I pulled her cheese-like cheek once, before grabbing her hand and headed towards the bus stop.

Our destination was the Sports Complex, about seven stops from here.

Fortunately, there was a shuttle operated by the ski resort, so we didn’t have to worry about transportation.

When we arrived at the designated departure point, we could see people wearing colorful ski suits, waiting with large bags.

“See? Everyone brings a lot of luggage!”

“…Those are probably for their ski equipment.“

Those bags were clearly boot bags.

Still, Doah insisted otherwise.

“How long will the trip take?”

“About three hours?”

Since it was an early morning bus, I figured that if we were to take a nap here, we’d wake up when we arrived.

So, we both just did that. Doah fell asleep on my shoulder first, and I soon closed my eyes too.

「Ah, ah. We have arrived!」

I could hear the deep voice of an older man echoing in my ears, followed by the rustling sound that people made as they got off the bus one by one.

“Doah.”

Meanwhile, Doah was still sleeping with a peaceful face.

With only her face peeking out from the padding, she looked like she was sleeping in a sleeping bag.

“Doah. We need to get off now.”

“…Already?”

“Yeah. It’s 9:30 already.”

“Mmm…”

After stretching her body once, she buried herself in my chest before slowly getting up.

“Woww.”

“Ohh.”

We stepped outside, letting out such a fascinated exclamation as we did.

You could never see this much snow in Seoul.

At a glance, the snow looked deep enough to reach my calves.

Painting the world pure white.

“It’s so beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

White smoke escaped from Doah’s mouth.

After arriving at the resort, we first stored our luggage in the storage area and decided to go skiing first.

So, we went to the ski wear rental shop, where all sorts of styles of clothes were hanging.

“…Which one should I try on?”

Honestly, it would have been easier for me if there were fewer choices…

This overwhelming amount of choices ended up hindering my decision-making capabilities.

“Hmm… Do you prefer something flashy, or something less conspicuous?”

“I don’t know.”

Honestly, I didn’t have any preference.

“Then I’ll choose for you.”

What Doah brought me after looking around earnestly was…

“Oh. This one’s nice.”

A simple navy blue ski suit.

I found myself liking the pattern on the right chest more than I thought.

“Here are the pants.”

After that, she handed me a pair of black pants, and I took the clothes she had selected and headed to the fitting room.

“…How is it?”

I turned around so that Doah could see how I looked. She let out a bright smile as she gave me her opinion.

“It suits you well!”

With that, Doah’s turn was done, so now it was my turn to pick for her.

“For you… this one.”

Since she asked me to pick, I just picked the one that I liked, but…

She stared at me weirdly after seeing my pick…

“…Why is it pink?”

“Because you’re Luka?”

Luka always wears pink, no?

Hearing my words, she chuckled, as if finding my answer ridiculous.

“No, even Luka wears other colors sometimes, you know?”

“So, you don’t want to wear this?”

Regardless of whether she was Luka or not, I genuinely thought the outfit itself looked nice.

“Ngh… Fine, I’ll try it on.”

In the end, she decided to try it on with a sulky face, but her reaction after standing in front of the mirror didn’t seem too bad.

“Huh, it actually isn’t that bad.”

“See? I told you it suits you.”

“Because I’m Luka?”

“That part is just a bonus.”

After renting the clothes, we also rented the ski equipment.

And so, time to face the final hurdle.

“Should we take the lessons during the day?”

“Yeah. Take lessons during the day and ski by ourselves in the afternoon.”

Even though we came to the ski resort confidently, neither of us had ever skied before. So, we decided to take private lessons, but only during the day.

“Alright, two adult morning lessons for you!”

After the staff member summarized the payment details for confirmation, Doah nodded.

“Bill me for this later okay?”

“Okay! Hehe.”

For now, we decided to use Doah’s card if there was anything we needed to pay for.

“Alright, please wait for a moment, we’ll assign an instructor for you!”

Around three minutes after the staff member went into the back office…

A young woman wearing a ski suit with the resort’s name plastered on it approached us.

“Hello~”

“Ah. Yes. Hello.”

“First, please put on your boots, grab your skis, and wait by the main entrance over there! I’ll be following you shortly!”

“Alright.”

Following the instructor’s directions, we stepped outside, and were immediately greeted by the ski slope.

Maybe because the place we came to was a large place, they had quite the diverse courses for skiing.

“…I assume we can’t go there, right?”

Doah blinked as she looked up at the advanced course.

“We’d be lucky if we make it to the intermediate course.”

My athletic capabilities were bad, no need to mention that.

While Doah didn’t seem to be any better.

If we were to fall down from up there, we’d most likely get in a lot, I mean, A LOT of trouble.

“Sorry for the wait!”

After a short while, the instructor approached us with a bright smile.

“Neither of you have any skiing experience, right?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, let’s go to the beginner’s course and start with the basics!”

After we moved, the brutal courses we had seen earlier were gone, replaced by a slope with an incline closer to a snow sledding hill.

“Don’t plant your poles on the ground when riding the lift~”

It felt like I was back in kindergarten again.

Still, we paid for this lesson, so we should learn properly at least.

“The first thing we’ll learn is the ‘bogen,’ commonly known as the A-pose~”

As we brought our legs together to form an A shape, the skis started to slowly descend.

Doah, who went down first, successfully followed the instructor’s directions and made it to the bottom.

Well, if Doah could do it, I should be able to do it too.

The instructor signaled for me to come down, so I tried to form an A-shape like she taught me, but…

“Huh?”

Maybe my waist was too tense…

The two skiboards caught the ends of the A and I started to lose balance.

This didn’t seem right…

I tried to lift my feet slightly to create some distance, but…

-Swoosh

I felt a cold yet soft sensation on my lips.

“Are you okay?”

Before the feeling of embarrassment even appeared, I heard the instructor’s voice.

“A-Ah, I…”

“While we’re at it, let’s learn how to get up when you fall down!”

She reached out both hands to help me up, then demonstrated how to fall and get up herself.

“How about that? Do you understand?”

“Yes. I think I can get up now.”

After practicing a couple of times and successfully going down, the instructor gave Doah the same lesson.

“Alright, Doah-ssi, why don’t you try going to where that flag is first?”

“Huh? Just me?”

“Well, Taemin-ssi doesn’t seem to have gotten the hang of it yet, so for now, I think it’s better if we go down together!”

“Oh… okay…”

Doah glanced at me once before turning her body and slowly taking her position.

Like the cautious person she was, she went down slowly and carefully.

I wish I could do that…

“Alright, Taemin-ssi! I’ll ski backwards like this, so please try to follow the path I take!”

Anyway, the instructor was amazing.

How can she ski backwards like that?

I’ve seen good skaters do that too.

I thought I might do better this time, but I inevitably fell in the same way as before.

The instructor, who watched this right in front of her, helped me up and analyzed exactly what I needed.

“You need to tighten your hips around here.”

She went behind me and lightly tapped my waist.

“Try to maintain that posture, it’ll be easier.”

“…I’ll try.”

Like that, three hours of lessons passed…

“…It’s probably better to eat at the food court here, right?”

“Who knows. I’m not eating.”

For some reason, Doah refused to make eye contact with me…