Chapter 58 – Ban Hana’s Outing

Children grew up in no time without realizing it.

I felt like I could understand why that saying came about.

Hana couldn’t peer down on me anymore.

She said to me in a surprised tone, “Sijoon! How are you taller than me again?”

“Have I ever been smaller than you?”

“Y-You…were smaller than me just yesterday…”

“That was a dream, Hana.”

As time passed, my height was returning back to normal. I was now way taller than Hana, who had been bigger than me.

At this rate, I might be back to normal within a week.

I judged that I didn’t have much time left to make my moves on Lee Seolha.

Before that…

I had to keep my promise to Ban Hana.

The promise I made that I’d take her outside and show her a fun time.

Keeping that promise came first in my priorities.

I asked her implicitly, “Hana, don’t you want to go out?”

“…!”

She reacted to my question as if she had been struck by lightning.

“I wanna go out! I don’t like staying in the room!”

Due to the gate incident, the freshmen had no classes so she was in my dorm room every day.

The only outside air she could get was from the breeze blowing in from the window.

Seeing the way she immediately reacted, it seemed she had been very suffocated.

“Then, let’s go out. Get dressed and ready.”

“Y-You’re…being serious right, Sijoon?”

“We made a promise, didn’t we? I always keep my promises.”

I didn’t make promises that I couldn’t keep in the first place.

Hana was touched by my exaggerated response.

She was giving me an overwhelmed look before snapping to attention as she began to prepare to head out.

“Hehe…! Finally, I’m going out!”

If I knew she’d like it this much, I would’ve taken her outside often.

However, because Hana was the main monitoring target, she could not be brought outside as we pleased.

This was currently a unique case for her who hadn’t been able to attend the school field trip.

It was an opportunity that arose because I went to the president’s office to ask for permission beforehand.

“May I bring Hana outside with me, if we have a guardian?”

President Shin Haeyoung fell into deep contemplation at my question, but when she heard that we would have a guardian, she approved without hesitation.

“Clothes… What… What should I wear?!”

I looked at Hana, who was like pink cotton candy, as she was busy prepping, and sent a text to our guardian.

She would hear me out without fail.

I don’t have much time left so how could she not listen to this request of mine…?

She misunderstood my life expectancy even though that wasn’t the case. She believed my years were numbered, so she would be willing to help me out.

This was not me using Shin Sihwa, it was about us helping and supporting each other.

–Teacher. Hana and I are going to go out, would you be able to accompany us as a guardian? I don’t have time left so… I ask for your help.

She had felt guilt towards Hana so this plan also existed to ease that feeling a little.

I spoke to Hana, who was prepping diligently.

“Hana. You only have a school uniform, what are you prepping so hard for?”

“E-Even so…! Preparing hard before going out feels good, doesn’t it?!”

It seemed that Hana had seen videos of people getting ready diligently before heading out, so she was pretending to follow them.

Should I be limiting her time on XXXtube?

In the meantime, a text came in from our teacher. 

I picked up my phone and checked the message.

Upon reading it, I immediately shouted to Hana, “Let’s head out before it gets late, it’s better to get there sooner than later.”

“L-Let’s go! Let’s go in!!”1

Hana shouted a line that sounded like it came from a gangster movie.

It seemed that I should limit her TV watch time.

And so I took Hana, who kept shouting “Let’s go in!” and headed to the parking lot where our teacher, Shin Sihwa, was waiting.

 ***

As we headed towards the parking lot, Ms. Sihwa happily greeted us.

She looked after Hana while we were on the field trip, so it appeared she was well aware how lonely she was.

We rode her car as we headed to our destination.

As long as there was a guardian, we could leave the academy premises.

The place we were headed to was quite far away. In the middle of the ride, we stopped by a service area and had some snacks.

That was how we arrived at an amusement park located in Seoul.

I thanked Ms. Sihwa then got out of the car.

“S-Sijoon… There’s a lot of people…”

It appeared that the huge crowd frightened Hana because she was clinging onto me as soon as she got out of the car.

When Ms. Sihwa saw that, she whispered to my ear, “Student Han Sijoon, make sure to behave yourself. Whether it’s Yoo Hayeon or Ban Hana.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know how you came up with the idea of leaving your childhood friend to get with Hana, but…the remaining years of your life, I hope you don’t regret it.”

Shin Sihwa had viewed Hayeon and my childhood relationship like a drama.

She might’ve talked to Hana a lot while I was gone since she saw her as a character added into the drama.

She doesn’t know that I kissed Hana, does she…?

Fortunately, I prevented Hana from revealing stuff several times, so looking at Ms. Sihwa’s reaction, it didn’t seem like they had that kind of conversation.

As I was thinking that this was going to be a good spectacle for the teacher, Hana gripped my hand and yelled, “S-Sijoon… I’m curious about that…! Let’s hurry up! I can’t go alone…”

“Okay. Hold onto my hand. You’ll be in big trouble if you don’t.”

I felt like it would be a big problem if I left the nervous Hana like a lost child, so I held her hand more tightly than usual.

After confirming that our teacher was following us, two steps behind, I headed to the entrance.

“Welcome! Welcome to the dreamland, Hero Land!”

At the entrance, a lady greeted us.

Hana expressed her piqued interest while looking at her. 

“Woah… Sijoon. Is this person a Hero, too?”

“A Hero… She probably is.”

The part-timer looked flustered when Hana asked if she was a hero, to which I confirmed she was.

It wasn’t wrong to call those protecting children’s innocence a Hero too.

The part-timer looked at Shin Sihwa who was following behind us and said, “One adult and two students, come on in. Your mother looks young! May your family have a great time.”

“…But we’re not family.”

It seemed that the part-timer saw us as family judging from Hana’s height and our appearance.

Ms. Sihwa gave a cold response specifying we weren’t though.

She was 29 years old, and had been focusing on marriage recently. She was at an age where she was rightfully sensitive to the word, “family.”

After going through that small misunderstanding, we entered Hero Land and various rides came into view.

Hero Land was the most famous amusement park in the world of V. AGE. With the development of technology, the rides had also gone through changes, being operated by mana stones.

Those such rides were moving quite dynamically.

It should be fine for Hana to ride it, right…?

I was a little concerned, but when I saw Hana’s expression as she looked at the rides, my worry vanished.

“Sijoon! That! I…wanna ride that!”

“…You want to ride that from the get-go…?”

“Mhm! I wanna ride it!”

She grabbed and tugged me along towards a gyro drop that slowly ascended before sharply dropping down.

Her first choice of ride boasted a fairly high degree of difficulty.

How was Hayeon when she rode that?

Memories of my middle school  days came to surface when Hayeon went on the gyro drop without knowing anything.

She was the type to get motion sickness easily even on the bus; that applied to rides as well.

“Kyaaa!! Han Sijoon, save me!!”

I watched Hayeon’s terrified expression live right next to her.

When it was over, she shot me a resentful glare, asking, “Why didn’t you tell me it was going to be like this…?”

Afterwards, she spent the time riding quiet rides like the merry-go-round.

A little worried, I asked Hana again.

“Are you sure? You can actually ride something like that, right?”

”Sijoon, what do you see me as? I’m Ban Hana!”

Yeah. It’s a problem because you’re Ban Hana.

Hana was adamant so I had no choice but to get on the gyro drop.

“Now…Let’s go! Everyone…!”

I don’t know why, but Ms. Sihwa appeared to be more excited.

And so we took our seats and put on all the safety gear.

Ms. Sihwa and Hana wouldn’t get hurt if they fell, but I was different from them. 

The safety bar came down and the gondola slowly ascended.

“Sijoon! I’m floating in the air! This is a villain!”

“Hana. Let’s refrain a little from the word villain…”

For Heros it might not be a big deal, but for ordinary citizens, villains were objects of fear.

As I was telling that to Hana, we arrived at the top of the gyro drop.

I said to Hana in that situation, “Any last words?”

“Huh? What?”

Although she had seen other people ride this, it didn’t seem like the situation sunk in yet.

How great of a thrill the gyro drop utilizing mana stone was and how scary it was to experience it firsthand.

Hana sent me a confused look with her pink eyes. Her face immediately hardened when the engine began to descend towards the ground.

“S-Sijoon…? I… I don’t think this is it… L-Let me down…”

It was only then did she seem to feel scared, making a mournful expression.

I felt bad, but there was nothing I could do for her.

I could only send my condolences and hold her hand.

The gyro drop quickly dropped to the ground.

“Kyaaa!! S-Sijoon!!”

Hana let out a piercing shriek.

She had lived on a high floor, so she wasn’t afraid of heights.

I could assume that she was experiencing this type of thrilling speed for the first time.

“Wooo!!”

Our teacher, who was next to me, seemed to be the most excited of us all, raising her voice.

I didn’t feel anything from this kind of thing, so I enjoyed the small thrill with a blank expression.

“S-Sijoon is a villain…”

Our first ride at the amusement park came to an end with Hana’s dying voice.

Although it was hard, it was definitely enjoyable.

I never imagined I’d come to regret not feeling my phone vibrating.

I had a fun time in various ways.

Footnotes:

1The line she says is a certain type of dialect in Korean. It’s often used by gangsters.