~ 이십일 ~

☼ Day ⓞⓝⓔ

Jinhwan called their attention after finishing a delicious breakfast. He was sitting on the receiving area of the house, where a television was open but no one was watching.

“Yah yah yah... take a look at this.” He swiped his phone to unveil a site that he has been searching on the web. There loaded a webpage that shows a snowfield and its amazing features.

“And what about that?” Yunhyeong asked nonchalantly, unimpressed of the webpage that made him walk towards Jinhwan and pause the game on his phone.

Donghyuk leaned on further to the screen of the rectangular mobile device. “Wait, is that just nearby?” He asked after reading the address written on the page. “Yup it is! Let’s go there!” Jinhwan said and showed Jiwon the directions to the said location. The latter shrugged and admitted that it was indeed a great idea.

“Off to the Busan snowfield we go!”

 ❀❀❀ 

A land covered with whiteness and many attractions welcomed their sights as they finally reached the said destination. Jiwon parked his car and the rest stepped out, eyes wide as they roam around their gazes to a wonderful tourist attraction there was.

There was a lot of snow, of course since it was a snowfield, and cable lines allowing cable cars to hang on. There were also a huge number of people, mostly were tourists like them, entering the entrance gate and bearing excited faces. They also went inside and quickly changed into warm wears: a very thick jacket and pants, and a winter boots.

The group of six friends marched their way towards a playground made of snow; Jinhwan lead the troop up to the slide made of ice. Everyone was on a circular object made of rubber and sled down the spiral almost five meters high slide.

“Waaaaaaahhhh!” Everybody hollered in delight as each finished the fun ride downwards. They saw some people riding snowboards and ski; they rushed to the counter to borrow those things too.

“Ah bwoyah! I don’t want to ride that!” Suhyun exclaimed, glaring at the poor snowboard, which was lying at peace on the snow. Jinhwan skated beside her and poked his elbows on Suhyun. “Hmm... don’t tell me you don’t know how to ride a snowboard?” He grinned when Suhyun turned her face on him. “Shut up! And so what?” Gritting her teeth, she rolled her eyes and marched away from him.

“Do you know how to ride this?” Hayi asked as she went to an open space. There was a lot of space for skiing and snowboarding, which was the famous attraction at this place.

Jiwon threw the two sticks on the snow and wore the skis. “Yep, a bit. It’s like almost the same as skating right?” He asked after pressing one foot on the board and so does on the other.

“Aniyooo~ it’s different. Do you know how to ride this Hayi-ah? I can teach you.” Yunhyeong offered, as he was already ready for some skiing action. He gave her two poles that would act as her guide just like those two little wheels when learning how to bike.

Hayi shook her head no and caught the two poles he has given her. “I have tried this when I was young though, but now I don’t know if I could still can.” She wore the two skis and went towards the lift to move her up the slope; the rest also did the same.

“Watch me,” Yunhyeong proudly said and get off the slope immediately. He was good, as he had already tried this many times. The five left on the top were amazed at his skiing skills. Donghyuk got off as well, and like what was expected... he’s also good at this sport.

Now the two pairs were left; Suhyun, who was clueless about anything that goes with Snowboarding; Jinhwan, who offered her help; Jiwon, who knew a bit about skiing; and Hayi, who had tried it before.

Suhyun kept on whining about how the hell would she go down with this board while Jinhwan kept on offering his help. In the end, Suhyun gave up and let him teach her the basics of snowboarding.

“You have to bend your knees and lift your toes,” he demonstrated and Suhyun copied him. “But you have to remain your balance or else you’ll fall when you go down.” Jinhwan reminded and pulled her down the slope. “Alright let’s try.”

They got off and Jinhwan kept reminding Suhyun the basics. “Yah, raise your toes and don’t lean forward. Yah, you should shift your body sideways if you want to change directions. Yah, yah, Suhyun-ah!”

“I got it you idiot!” She yelled as she go down the slope; she was good at first but when they reached the middle, Suhyun suddenly lost her balance causing her to fall on the snow. Jinhwan saw it and laughed at her.

“Oppaaaa you piece of !”

As the bickering duo go snowboarding and arguing at the same time, Hayi and Jiwon were the only ones left at the top. Both were quite nervous since they have not done this in a while.

“Uhm, l-let’s go?” She asked; Jiwon nodded and the two skied down the slope. And just like Suhyun, Jiwon fell down as he tried to perform something cool, yet unlike Jinhwan, Hayi didn’t laugh instead, she quickly went towards Jiwon and aided him.

“Yah! Why are you so careless? What if you got injured again? Aish.” She muttered and helped Jiwon get up. “Omo, where’s my stick?” She looked for the poles Yunhyeong gave but it seemed like she had thrown them too far off their direction when she saw Jiwon on the ground.

“Aigoo, don’t tell me you can’t ski down when you don’t have a stick?” Jiwon teased, but Hayi shyly admitted; she has been used to skiing with those guides since she was little.

Jiwon realized that Hayi was serious about it so he sighed, the cold air visible from his exhale, and offered his two hands; Hayi looked at those curiously. “Well you can use this as substitutes.” He said, and Hayi shyly grabbed his hands. “Cha, let’s go down.”

Hand in hand, the two skied down the slope; Hayi going forward while Jiwon aiding her, skiing backwards since she was holding two of his hands. They were so close to each other and kept on laughing since Jiwon kept on chumming words to kept them in the right direction. They tried doing it again one more time and after they got tired of it, they returned the borrowed stuffs to the counter and searched for their company.

“Haaaaaa!” There was a shout on the far right and exactly when the two turned to look at that direction, a snowball hit Jiwon’s face.

“Ow, a face shot! Niceu niceu!” Donghyuk shouted victoriously and jumped in joy together with Yunhyeong who was the suspect on the thrown snowball.

Jiwon wiped his face and went towards the two children and grabbed a handful of snow and formed it into a ball, when the two were busy celebrating, Jiwon threw the snowball at them, causing Donghyuk and Yunhyeong to stop and glare at Jiwon.

“Let’s get it on!”

They split into two groups; Jinhwan, Jiwon, and Hayi while the other group was Suhyun, Donghyuk, and Yunhyeong. Like little children, they threw snowballs at each other, build bases were the two yojas were the ones responsible for creating the snowballs. It was not a snowball fight but a snowball war. In the end, they ended up throwing balls at their allies too. Suhyun was putting her anger on the balls she threw at Jinhwan; while Yunhyeong was hitting Hayi but Jiwon blocked the balls from reaching her. They have not realized they were near a short slope, and when Yunhyeong catapult a huge snowball, Jiwon lost her balance and tripped downwards together with Hayi, rolling down on the snow as the go down.

“Hahahaha~” They were laughing as they stopped from rolling; well until they realized what awkward position they were at: Jiwon was on top of Hayi who was lying on the snow. Jiwon abruptly stood up and helped Hayi got on her feet as well, coughing as an awkward air surrounded both of them.

“Look what I did!” Suhyun shouted as she pat her finished artwork: a snowman.

“What is that? A monster?” Yunhyeong asked as he saw her work. Suhyun threw a snowball at his face, “Yah! This is a snowman, his name is Olaf.”

“Like Elsa?” Jinhwan grinned as he picked on a broken tree branch and placed them on the sides of the snowman, serving as its arms. Suhyun clapped happily when it looked better with those branches. “Ani~ let’s name it Jinhwan pabo.”

After a few more hours, they ran out of things to do at a snowfield, so everyone agreed to go home. It was a very fun experience... and tiring too.

   ❄ ❄ ❄   

☼ Day ⓣⓦⓞ

“The contest requires a pair whether either male or female or a mix of each.” Hayi read aloud the flier given to her by a volunteer when they went out to tour the province of Busan. It was a piece of paper containing an advertisement of a contest that would be held today by the local government; it was like an amazing race style that has a vision to let people know more about the province itself.

“So... who’s gonna pair with who?” Donghyuk asked after Hayi finished reading the contest material. The game’s location would be fifty percent of Busan, the other half were far away villages that were not urbanized; Halmoni’s house also belong to those far away villages but since Jiwon has a car, they could travel to the cities in Busan, including where they are right now.

Jinhwan immediately placed his arms around Suhyun’s shoulder and held her closer. “Us!” He grinned and Suhyun tried to break free from his arms but she could just only roll her eyes when Jinhwan’s arm was steady on her shoulders.

“Hayi, let’s be partners!” Yunhyeong declared and about to go to Hayi but Jiwon entangled himself on Hayi’s arm. “I’m sorry but Hayi told me to be partners with her.” Jiwon said and Hayi looked at him with curiosity. Did I say that? She asked but Jiwon’s facial expression told her to play along. “Ah, hehe, right. Jiwon will be my partner. Mian Yunhyeong, go be partners with Donghyukie.”

With a frowning face, Yunhyeong hugged Donghyuk and acted like he was sobbing. They went to the convention center where the starting was. They soon filled up a form, which served as their entry, and they were given a sticker indicating their numbers plus a roadmap to help them and a mission card that they needed to accomplish.

“On your mark... get set... GO!” At the sound of the signal, the players started running to the first destination. Hayi and Jiwon went to flag a cab, since the organizers prohibited the use of personal vehicles, and pleaded the driver to drive faster. After a few minutes, they finally reached the museum; where there was a mission envelope in order to reach the second itinerary.

“History: find the three paintings...” Hayi and Jiwon entered the museum and roamed around, looking for the three paintings and listing them down on a small pad provided by the staff on the entrance. It took them a while before they found out about the last one and when they passed the answers, they were thankful the staff gave the second place.

“Yah let’s go~” Hayi said as she held Jiwon’s arm and they ran towards the east, since the location was just near the first one. Panting, they went to a person who was holding a small flag; he gave the pair the second mission card: catch ten small fishes in the inflatable pool.

Since it was nearly a few days before winter, the breeze was colder than usual and so the water does the same too, which made it very difficult for the pair to catch the tiny fishes with their bare hands. Finally though, after spending a lot of time in the chilly water, Hayi finally caught the tenth and final fish which meant they could already go out of the large inflatable pool; because she was so overwhelmed she hugged Jiwon but that didn’t last long, as the staff handed them the next itinerary card.

This time they boarded a bus for they could not find any available cab and it was far off their current location. After a three stops, they reached the station that was near the third destination. Hayi and Jiwon sprinted like they were Usain Bolt fighting for his another gold medal in the olympics, but it was kind of a bad tactic though, since what welcomed their sight was hundreds of steps of a stairs.

“Annyeong!” The staff greeted them using the famous satoori. “I’m gonna teach you how to speak satoori. This line...” It took a few tries before Hayi got the proper intonation on the line ‘Hello, there were blank steps in the stairs, sir.”

They quickly rushed to get up the many stairs of a famous attraction there. ‘Na, deul, set, net... seumul...” They counted each steps as swift but accurately as possible, and finally when they reached the top, there was a pair who got a wrong count and had to re-do it again. Jiwon gulped a lump on , have they counted it correctly?

“yukship-pal, yukship-gu...” There was a familiar voice below them; Hayi looked down and saw the other pair, Jinhwan and Suhyun, who was of course bickering while they do the task. “Yah why are you so slow? Let’s go faster!” Suhyun whined and pulled Jinhwan’s hands so that they could reach the top faster. “Aigoo~ why are you such in a hurry. Wait, what number are we?” Jinhwan asked her when he lost count.

“Aish bwoyah oppa! You’re such a nitwit!”

Hayi chuckled while watching her best friend and his partner’s best friend fight like five-year-old kids. When it was their turn, Jiwon whispered to her the number of steps and Hayi was the one who spoke it in satoori.

“Hello, there were one hundred and eighty seven steps in the stairs, sir.” She said, nervous if she had spoken it correctly. Good thing the staff upstairs nodded and gave them a congratulatory smile, handing them the fourth and last itinerary card. “Here you go.”

The last one was luckily just a street away from the hundreds of stairs; it was an old restaurant, which was famous for selling the best kimchi soup. As they enter, they were also two of the pairs who were having a hard time eating the delicacy of the 80-year-old restaurant.

The manager attended them with two bowls of kimchi soup and gave them the rules. “You should finish that, without water or any pacifier food, before I hand the last card.” The pair thought that the task was a bit too easy since both of them love eating yet they have belittled the task too much; at the tenth spoonful, Hayi stopped eating and looked like she was about to cry.

“Are you okay?” Jiwon asked, still digging on the very spicy soup, as if his tongue has already lost its senses. Hayi shook her head and wiped the tears that began to form on her eyes. “Ani, I need water. .” She could not help but to cuss as the hotness was attacking her poor tongue.

“Can you still finish this?” He asked again, referring to the bowl she left unfinished. When Hayi dropped her head on the table, Jiwon grabbed her bowl and drank it like a drunkard addicted to his beer. “Aaahhh... that was sure spicy. Come on let’s go.”

He dragged a teary Hayi to the counter where the manager smiled and handed them the final card; they quickly got out of the bistro and flagged a cab, telling the driver to go at the convention center as fast as possible.

Moreover, after twenty minutes of ride, they arrived at the finish line as third placers; the first was of course the pair who has Donghyuk, the gifted genius. Unfortunately, Suhyun and Jinhwan came off last; still squabbling and blaming each other for the outcome of their performance.

“It’s your fault if you haven’t forgotten the number of the steps then we wouldn’t placed last!”

“Wow, why is it my fault? It was yours, but okay, whatever you say my lady.”

“Arrrghh you’re so annoying gosh!”

At the end of the day, Donghyuk gladly shared their pair’s prize: three boxes of pizza. (Except for the cash prize of course)

a/n: I just want to remind: all those stated above, the places and the events, were purely fictional. I don't really know about Busan lmao :( Anyways, thank you very much to those who subscribed to my story!! I wish all of you could comment to so I would know what do you think about the story hehe. And to those who upvoted, let me hug you guys! :'>

I will post another one perhaps tomorrow hehe. Please please please write your thoughts, my sister won't beta my work I'm crying. ;;