Minjoo left her house that morning preparing herself for their departure later. As she reached school, she saw two Super Grandia vans parked on the school grounds. There were also many students gathered, waiting to witness their departure.

Minjoo was surprised at how many students were there. There were at least 50 students gathered. Minjoo wondered how they were allowed here and thought how their teachers would react if they keep on staying here and not attend their morning class.

Minjoo looked around the crowd and saw Yuri by her left, waving a hand at her. Her friends were also there, all complete and were just waiting for them to be instructed. Minjoo made her way towards them.

"Surprised that many students showed up, huh?" Yuri nudged Minjoo, giving the crowd a one sweep glance.

"Mhm. I thought all of us were going when I first saw them from a far. I don't even understand how they're allowed to stay here with their morning classes now starting." Minjoo says.

"I heard their teachers allowed them just for this event. They said it was part of the contest so they'd move the all the classes to start at 9. I'm not sure, though. I just heard a student talk about it earlier when I arrived." Yuri then brought her attention to Minjoo.

"Oh, and also they wanted to see Yujin and her friends before they leave. Now that, I'm pretty sure. I've heard not only one, but five students mention it earlier."

Minjoo rolled her eyes at what Yuri said. Of course, they wanted to see them before leaving the school grounds.

With the mention of Yujin's name, Minjoo remembered her meeting with her yesterday.

"By the way, yesterday after you guys went out, Yujin came to my house. Do you have any idea how she found out where I live?" Minjoo had an eyebrow raised as she looked at Yuri.

Yuri slowly scratched her head while looking away. "I... uhm... kinda gave her your address when she... asked?" She said the last word unsurely, like it was a question that she was asking Minjoo.

Minjoo was about to give her a piece of her mind when she heard Ms. Im starting to speak. She was already standing beside the two vans, facing the students as they watch her curiously.

"Wow. Look at the crowd we have here." Ms. Im says, scanning the students all gathered at the place. "Are you all excited?"

The crowd cheered as a response. After a few seconds, the cheering died down.

"Okay, okay. I know all of you are excited for the contest, but all of you are not coming with us. You know that."

Some of the students had obvious frowns on their faces but they knew from the start that they won't be able to come. They were just here to see them go. Though by the looks of it, Minjoo thought that the students were even sadder to see Yujin and her friends go than actually not being able to be part of the contest.

"Moving on, let me check if all of our contestants are here." Ms. Im brought out her clipboard with a paper on top of it.

One by one, she called out the contestants name. As she did, they all responded with a 'present' and raised their hand. Everything was going around smoothly until Yujin's name was called.

The crowd cheered, maybe even louder than before when Ms. Im asked if they were excited. Ms. Im had to shush them down as they were being too loud and Ms. Im couldn't proceed with the attendence.

"Jeez, now I see why you're all here." Ms. Im joked as she continued calling out the remaining names. Thankfully, all of them were already here.

"Alright, it seems that every one is here and judging by the clock, it's already 8:03. We will have to leave now. All contestants please proceed to the van. You guys will be divided into two so that there'll be six students each. Now, every one head in." The contestants all went inside the van—Minjoo and her friends going on one van, Yujin and her friends on the other.

The van looked so much bigger on the inside than on the outside. There were a total of 11 seats inside, including the driver's seat. There was a seat beside the driver's, behind it there were two captain chairs with a space in between, three seats were behind the two chairs, and the farthest row had four seats in it.

Yuri and Minjoo sat on the two captain chairs, Chaewon and Hitomi sat next to each other behind Minjoo and Yuri's, while Sakura and Wonyoung occupied the back row. After being seated, the van started to move to take them to the place of the contest.

On their way there, Minjoo tried to get some shut-eye as it'll be the last time she'll get to sleep without Yujin by her side. She was overthinking a lot of things: on how her and Yujin will communicate as they never got to talk to each other that much (until yesterday where Yujin went to her house), how she'll be able to tell Yujin that they have to win the contest, how she'll get through this contest without having to lose her sanity just because she'll have to stay with Yujin for months. On top all of that, she still wanted to give Yuri some good talking after she gave Yujin her address. Nevertheless, she decided to rest even if it'll just be a short amount of time.

As Minjoo drifted off into a short nap, Sakura kept on trying to peek through the windows by her side. The windows of the van were sealed shut and there was a black curtain like cover on it that can't be removed. It was as if they didn't want them to see where they were going. After her multiple attempts of peeking, she still wasn't able to see what was outside or where they were going.

"Hey. How come I can't see anything from these windows? It's shut tight. What if they're kidnapping us?" Sakura asked, her eyes widening in panic.

Chaewon, who had her head leaning on Hitomi, let out a chuckle. "Unnie, this contest was a whole secret in the first place. No one knew what happened or where it happened in the past few years it was held. What makes you think they'll start letting you know where we're going now?"

Sakura seemed to stop to think for a bit before nodding slowly. "Oh, you're right."

Wonyoung chuckled beside her. "Yeah, Chaewon unnie is right. I wonder if she'll be able to outsmart us in the contest." She joked.

Chaewon playfully rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out to Wonyoung, careful not to wake Hitomi up.

"We don't know who'll get to outsmart who. We'll know when it starts."

--

The journey from the school going to the place for where the contest will be held took almost two hours. By the time they reached the place, it was almost noon.

The driver announced that they had reached their destination. Both Minjoo and Yuri came out of the van first as they were the nearest to the doors, only to be surprised at what they saw.

To Minjoo's side, a view of the ocean can be seen. White sand almost covered the whole landscape with exception to the ocean in front of her. There were some people on the beach that day, around 20 people at most. Other than that, no one was there except their van and the other group's van approaching their way.

To Yuri's side, there were rows of houses lining up the beach's front. The houses weren't the ordinary ones that you'd see on a daily basis but rather, they looked like the ones a family would stay at during a vacation—a beach house mayhaps. There was a space between each house so that they wouldn't look like they were crammed with one another. There was a small sand-like mountain below each house. The houses were also elevated from the ground and it had wooden stairs at the very front that lead up for the people to be able to access the house.

The other people from their van came out a little later and they were in awed at what they saw.

"Holy crap. Where did they get the money to rent a place like this for a school contest?" Chaewon asked the moment she got out of the van and was able to survey the whole place.

"Well, they did say they were going to hold the contest somewhere they haven't hold it before. Oh, and it's the school's 60th anniversary, remember? Maybe they funded for us to be able to go to a place like this?" Yuri commented, still looking around the place.

The other van arrived just behind theirs. The students got out, the same way they did earlier and they also had the same look Minjoo and her friends had.

A little later, three cars also came along with a bus that. This time it were the teachers and personnel assigned for the contest. The bus also held the equipment they'll be using throughout the contest. 

From one of the cars, a woman and a man emerged. Minjoo was sure that they weren't someone from their school.

The woman was wearing a brown off shoulder top with a matching cinnamon-colored leather pencil skirt that didn't reach her knees. She was also wearing high heels that contributed in making her a bit taller. She had black hair and had a fierce looked in her eyes.

The man, on the other hand, wore a light sandstone-colored tutleneck with a coffee colored blazer on top of it. He wore a brownish-black pants and a black leather brogue as a footwear. He was taller than the woman in front of him who led the way as they walked towards the center of the students—facing them.

In Minjoo's point of view, they didn't look like someone who were prepared for a day at the beach.

The woman smiled at them, cleared , and began speaking. "Good morning, everyone! How are you all enjoying the place?" She spoke with high energy and wore a bright smile on her face that the people c