Chapter 59 – Did You Have Fun?

Yoo Hayeon’s daily life where she wasn’t training was boring.

The First Year students had gotten younger for a certain period of time after a gate incident. The academy had banned the students from training in consideration of the fact how it could disorient their senses if they trained with a smaller body.

Hayeon’s dorm room had its lights bright on even at lunchtime.

Whenever Hayeon was bored, she texted the person she contacted most.

–Han Sijoon, what’re you doing? I’m bored.

Sijoon didn’t check his phone often so his replies were slow. So Hayeon sent the text and waited for quite a long time for his response.

“…Why isn’t he checking it?”

However, even after some time had passed, he did not respond to the text. Lately, it took Sijoon much longer to reply, and he had not been contacting much under the pretext of him being busy.

What he was doing was waiting for his body to return back to normal in his dorm, yet he claimed to be busy.

Hayeon was disappointed and suspicious of that side of him.

Lee Seolha, Ban Hana.

What automatically came to her mind were the new characters who got in her way.

One wench already looked like she was in love with Sijoon. As for the other wench, she hated Sijoon, but recently, she had been giving him strange looks.

“It can’t be…right?”

Sijoon had been seeing Hayeon for a long time, so there was no way he would move onto them, right?

Hayeon was confident in her looks.

She had gotten nonstop compliments from people, and even though Sijoon didn’t want to admit it, he did acknowledge she was pretty.

“Yeah… Would Sijoon, who saw me day after day, move onto a little girl like her?”

Hayeon rolled around the bed, assuming that he was taking a nap.

Ban Hana did not match Sijoon’s tastes. Younger women were not his type.

“But…”

Why am I so anxious?

As the seeds of doubt grew, Hayeon couldn’t easily control her emotions. Even more so when the anxious feelings were connected to Sijoon.

She adeptfully dialed the number on her phone and immediately called him. 

–The person you are calling is unavailable…

–The person you are calling is un…

–The person you are calling…

“…”

She called him several times, but he did not answer his phone all the way till the end.

Overwhelmed by the anxiety, she had no choice but to stop. 

“This is your fault. Sijoon.”

I had no choice. You brought it on yourself.

With that in mind, Hayeon turned on the “Couple Location Tracking” app on her phone.

Couples could check each other’s location. It was an app intended to catch cheaters.

It happened the day Sijoon met with the president. Since he had been showing her strange signs, she stealthily took his phone out of his pocket, and secretly installed the app.

His password was always a ㄱ pattern, so his childhood friend was able to bypass his phone easily and install the application.

“Just where the hell is he for him to be ghosting my calls?”

She looked at the screen as she checked where he was.

Why was Sijoon at a place like this?

Hayeon questioned while slight anger was building inside her.

“Hero Land…”

It was the place where he and Hayeon went when they were little.

Han Sijoon, who hated active activity, was in such a place?

He would never have gone alone.

Hayeon came to that judgment.

When she imagined Sijoon holding hands and on the rides with another woman, anger boiled inside her.

“First… I’ll have to find out who he went with…”

Even if she went to Hero Land now, she wouldn’t be able to find him in that vast area.

There was only one entrance to the academy.

Hayeon started making plans to wait for him outside.

 ***

After riding the gyro drop, Hana was complaining about the aftereffects.

“Sijoon…were you trying to kill me?”

“…You won’t die just from that one ride.” 

In fact, with the exception of Hana, everyone else had enjoyed the thrilling ride and were on their way out.

Seeing the disheveled hair, it looked like they had a lot of fun.

“S… Shall we ride it one more time?”

Of course, that included Ms. Sihwa.

Maybe it seemed abnormal to Hana, she cowered a little.

“I-It’s a lie… This is a dream…”

“Okay, we’ll ride something less scary.”

We grasped her tolerance level for rides.

In the first place, gyro drops at the amusement park required a lot of mental strength.

It wasn’t the right ride for her.

First, let’s move.

I grabbed Hana’s hand and moved while looking for a ride for her.

Our teacher, who was the most excited, expressed her regret, but today’s main character was none other than Hana.

I bought a rabbit headband sold at a nearby shop and put it on Hana.

“Hehe… I’m also a rabbit!”

It seemed she forgot the terrifying gyro drop experience, since she was wearing a happy smile.

I’m jealous of that side of her with a bad memory.

Hana forgot the bad memories easily.

I patted her head that had on the rabbit ears, then we walked around the amusement park.

“Sijoon! I wanna ride that!”

If there was a ride that piqued her interest while we walked, we rode it.

Hana picked simple rides like the merry-go-round and rollercoasters.

It was worth it since she was able to find joy even in the smallest thrilling things.

After we had a simple meal, I could tell that we didn’t have much time left from the darkening skies.

“Hana. For the last one, do you want to go there?”

“Hmm?”

I chose our last attraction.

Wasn’t there at least one thing that you couldn’t miss when you’re at the amusement park?

If you came with your friends, then you rode the bumper cars and roller coasters.

If you came as a couple, you could have fun by doing things where you clung onto each other.

When Hana arrived in front of the place, she began to whimper.

“S-Sijoon. Isn’t it scary if it’s a haunted house…?”

“It’s not scary at all. It’ll be fine.”

Probably.

I didn’t say the last part as I held Hana’s hand.

“Your teacher…will sit this one out…”

Ms. Sihwa said that she would not participate in the haunted house.

She enjoyed the thrilling experience of speedy rides, but seemed to be terrified by apparatuses popping up suddenly.

“Then the two of us will be going in.”

“Go ahead, Sijoon…”

It couldn’t be helped, so Hana and I entered the haunted house.

From the very start, she squeezed my hand as if she had been stricken by fear from the dark.

“I-If…you let go of my hand… I’m gonna die! I might actually die!”

“You’re not going to die. Since they’re just people.”

All the ghosts from the haunted house were part-timers.

This was no supernatural phenomenon; they were people wearing a doll’s mask.

I couldn’t understand the fear of such things whatsoever.

Come to think of it, I’ve never been here with Hayeon.

I remembered entering it with my parents a long time ago, but Hayeon was afraid of dark places so she never did.

It was my first time coming to this place with a woman.

I walked down the dark hallway, as that thought crossed my mind. 

The first danger came to us.

“…I-It’s a mirror. Sijoon!”

As we walked, there were small glowing lights shining on us which came from the countless mirrors.

Nothing was unusual with our reflections, but there was a bit of a dreary atmosphere.

A mirror…

When I saw those mirrors, I recalled an episode from V. AGE.

1. AGE had six episodes in total. If you finish all the episodes without dying, you could see the ending to the game. 

If I recall correctly, in the middle, there was an episode involving a mirror. It was an episode where a person’s future was reflected and you could talk to your future self.

That allowed players to determine whether the ending was a happy one or a bad one.

What about my ending?

Unlike Hana, who was shaking like a leaf next to me, I didn’t feel any nervousness.

I walked while pondering about the ending.

While I was like that, Hana said with a quiet voice, “Sijoon… What’s that in front of you?”

We had been walking while relying on the small lights, when we saw a dim human figure suddenly show up.

“I-It’s a ghost! Sijoon! A ghost…! S-Save…me!!”

“It’s not a ghost, it’s a person.” 

Hana shook my arms back and forth, raising a fuss.

It’s a person, what is she so scared for?

I wanted to get out of this dark space quickly. So I pulled Hana, who was trying to escape, towards the person in front of us.

“S-Sijoon, you’re planning to kill me, aren’t you…?! You don’t need me anymore, do you…?! You’re trying to throw me away, right…?!”

“Just what kind of videos have you been watching?”

I couldn’t grasp Hana’s response.

I walked forward ignoring what she said.

Then I had no choice but to halt in place.

Because my reflection in the mirror looked a tad different.

I couldn’t help but to stop and look at it.

…What’s this?

My appearance, which was reflected in the mirror, looked slightly regretful.

There’s still a lot of time left before that episode though…

It wasn’t my smaller self, but my matured self.

I don’t know why, but my future self was being reflected before me.

I looked at myself in that mirror and came up with a guess.

Is it warning me to not make regrets?

It would’ve been nice if my mirror self could talk to me, but he didn’t open his mouth and stared at me.

As I was like that, Hana exclaimed hastily, “Sijoon! What’re you doing?? A ghost is coming!!”

“Just wait a minute, Hana.”

There was something more important than a ghost.

But when she spoke to me, my mirror self had disappeared somewhere.

What in the world was that?

A natural phenomenon?

Or the force of the world?

While going through an incomprehensible situation, I could sense someone’s steps approaching us from the front.

“Kyaa! Sijoon! A ghost is coming!!”

Overreacting, Hana was shaking all over.

And that was how a figure emerged from the darkness as she was in fear. 

“Excuse me, this area is under inspection. Did you two miss the sign in front?”

“…Pardon?”

As the lights turned on in the mirror room, a staff member appeared.

As ridiculous as it sounded, he was saying that they were currently doing an inspection.

Hana looked puzzled just like me.

As we were like that the staff shouted, “I’m afraid I have to ask you to leave since we’re currently doing an inspection…”

“L-Let’s get out! Sijoon! Hurry up!”

Hanna tugged my hand as she led me to the entrance.

I wondered just what in the world appeared before me, and why I had a regretful look in my eyes.

As I thought about that incident, I was dragged outside by Hana’s small hand.

 ***

After having a fun time at the amusement park, we headed back to the academy.

It felt short, yet quite long at the same time.

I felt proud of myself for giving Hana a great time.

“Hmm… Sijoon…”

Like a child who fell asleep after playtime, Hana leaned her face on my shoulder as she went to dreamland.

Perhaps in consideration of Hana, our teacher drove very steadily.

We spent time like that, then eventually, we arrived at the academy.

“Ugh, that was rough… Hana. Let’s go home now.”

I said as I shook her to wake her up.

However, I had no choice but to stop what I was doing when I heard a different voice which followed.

“Han Sijoon. It looks like you had fun today? You didn’t even answer my call.”

“…Yoo Hayeon?”

Why was she in the parking lot?

When she asked the question, I simultaneously felt cold sweat running down my cheek.

With an icy expression, Hayeon chanted, “You went to the amusement park with her. Did you have fun? Without me knowing?”

Her tone felt like a cold gale was freezing my heart.

I could tell.

I’m screwed…

That I was currently in deep waters.

I could tell that Hayeon wasn’t going to let this slide.