Chapter 73
) [Illustration]
The parachute got caught in a tree.
Running through the forest following the parachute, I picked up my pace.
Before long, I could spot the wooden crate swaying in the air.
“Did I arrive first?”
I spread out a detection net around me.
I didn’t sense any human presence.
It seemed like I was the first to arrive.
As someone who hoped for examinees to gather, it was disappointing.
But waiting would do.
Before that.
“Should I check what’s inside?”
I cut the parachute strings hanging from the wooden crate.
The crate thudded to the ground.
Upon opening it, the supplies inside greeted me.
“Everything is here.”
Choco bars, pound cake, cup ramen, combat rations, first aid kit, compass, sanitary pads, underwear for both men and women, and socks.
Everything needed to survive on the island was provided.
Among them, I pulled out a water bottle.
“Ah, refreshing.”
Even though I wasn’t particularly thirsty, the cool water was a welcome relief.
Although I had a water bottle hanging from my waist, the water inside was lukewarm.
On the other hand, the water droplets on the surface of the bottle I retrieved from the box gave a cold sensation as they ran down my hand.
I unscrewed the cap and took a sip of water.
It was a refreshing feeling in my stomach.
“I found it! Over here!”
“Wow, we’re the first ones here…”
“Ah…”
“…”
It was at that moment that three exam candidates emerged from the bushes.
They had come here chasing supplies and were taken aback to see me sitting on the box, drinking water.
“The first prey has arrived.”
I thought to myself as I closed the water bottle.
Sensing the presence of the exam candidates, I calmly observed them.
“…”
Each exam candidate held a weapon, eyeing me cautiously.
It seemed like they knew who I was.
Yet, the reason I didn’t run away and stood my ground was because of the wooden box I was sitting on.
The supplies were tempting, making me reluctant to leave.
“But I don’t seem to have the courage to attack recklessly…”
I had no desire to engage in an unproductive standoff.
Although Yi Ga-hyun seemed to be absent among them, I couldn’t just let them go peacefully.
I decided to confront the exam candidates.
But there was still one more person.
“Is the person coming this way with you guys too?”
“…”
Another person was approaching behind the exam candidates.
They didn’t question my words, but the rest of their group would.
Once that person arrived, I planned to take their exam ticket.
“Hey guys! Found any supplies? Huh?”
“…Go Eun-bi?”
“Gyeonwoo! You’re here too!”
The exam candidate who emerged from the bushes was none other than Go Eun-bi.
With brown hair covered in leaves, she looked extremely delighted to see me.
If there had been a puppy tail wagging on her behind, she would have been shaking it joyfully.
I sheathed my sword at the sight of her.
The thought of taking the exam ticket vanished completely.
“What’s up, Eunbi, it was you? So, are they your classmates?”
“Yeah! They’re a classmate from middle school, we met during the second round of exams, got close, and then yesterday at the banquet…”
Goeunbi affirmed.
She turned around and awkwardly introduced each of the test-takers one by one.
It was a moment to see how high her sociability was.
I chuckled.
“You really have a lot of friends.”
“Oh, having many friends isn’t a big deal. This is just average.”
“I don’t have any friends.”
“Oh, come on! How can you say you have no friends when I’m here? And what about Haneul?”
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“Well, I only have two. Probably not more than you, right?”
“Oh, you must have more and you’re just teasing me now, right? Anyway… Gyungu, how many points did you get? I’m at 180 now… And that’s a black exam ticket, right? Where did you get it from?”
“From Nam Yuri.”
“Oh, the person from Namga who’s good at drawing?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow… That’s really impressive. Gyungu, I knew you were strong, but you beat that person too.”
Goeunbi admired as she looked at the exam ticket I was holding.
Meanwhile, her gaze was wandering elsewhere throughout our conversation.
It was towards the supplies behind me.
Soon, she approached me, clasping her hands together, speaking in a coquettish tone.
“So, Gyungu?”
“Why?”
Goeunbi’s intentions were clear.
It was evident she was about to suggest something.
Nevertheless, I decided not to be the first to suggest, pretending to be clueless.
I needed to think about how and where to pull off a prank.
‘…Not a bad idea?’
A suitable prank came to mind.
I smirked.
“We’re friends, right? We are friends, aren’t we?”
“Well, for now, we are friends.”
“Oh, you’re trying to pull that off again. Do you forget how well we clicked during the third exam? How good our chemistry was?”
“We did get along pretty well back then. So?”
“Looking at all those supplies behind you, could you share some with a friend? Huh? Kind and cool Gyungu.”
“Well, there’s quite a lot to move alone, so… I guess there’s no harm in sharing with Eunbi.”
“Really!? Gyungu, you’re the best! Thank you! I’ll treat you to a meal next time!”
“But those people behind you, they’re your friends, not mine.”
“…Can you just take care of my share?”
“I’ll take care of your share.”
“Gyungu, please don’t do that…”
“Don’t shake my arm, don’t cling to me. Isn’t it already quite considerate of me not to snatch away their exam papers and let them go? Give up.”
“How can it really not work out? Huh?”
“Well, there’s nothing that can’t work out, but…”
“What should I do then? Just tell me! I’ll do anything as long as it’s not weird!”
“Is that so?”
“….”
“You won’t regret it, right?”
“Why do you look like you’ve been waiting?”
“I said I’ll do anything as long as it’s not weird, right?”
“I fell for it. It was just a joke from the beginning!”
“You already said you would, so it’s useless to back out now.”
“Am I being fooled right now!?”
“Yes!”
“You jerk! You jerk! So what is it!?”
“It’s nothing much.”
“It doesn’t seem like nothing much though…”
“Write your name big with your butt. Slowly. Since there are three of them, write it three times.”
“Hey, Gyunwoo? I’m a middle school student. I’ll be a high school student this year.”
“Yeah, so?”
“I’m not a kid, why should I write my name with my butt?”
“What’s the harm in doing it? Eunbi, every time you move your butt, you can feed one of them.”
“….”
“Twice for two, thrice for three. Just by momentarily setting aside your embarrassment, you can save three people.”
“But my butt is precious…”
“Didn’t you want to become a hunter?”
“….”
“What’s the role of a hunter?”
“To kill monsters.”
“And?”
“…To save people?”
“Right now, you’re trying to ignore the duty of saving that person.”
“That’s… a fallacy.”
“But you’re feeling a sting right now, aren’t you?”
“Ugh…”
“Choose, Eunbi.”
“….”
“Will you live alone, or will you live with them?”
“I…”
Go Eunbi struggles with conflict.
Soon, she took a deep breath as if she had made up her mind.
She turned away from me.
“Hey, guys… Could you go somewhere out of sight for a moment?”
“Uh, Eunbi…”
“It’ll be over soon… I promise.”
“Ugh… Eunbi, you’re so pitiful, what should we do…”
“Don’t worry about me. Anyway… Gyungwoo is kind, so he won’t treat me badly.”
“Sigh…”
“Guys, I’ve enjoyed being with you all this time. See you later. And please… don’t look. I don’t want to show you the embarrassing sight of me shaking my butt.”
“…What’s with the sudden mood change?”
“I’m just surrendering to food…”
“There’s even a sanitary pad inside.”
“…Surrendering to a sanitary pad… Please, don’t look.”
Eunbi wiped her eyes with a handkerchief she had taken out from who knows where.
The students who were in the room disappeared into the forest, crying.
Now, there was only her and me around.
She had a stern expression on her face.
“Are all the farewells done?”
“…Yeah.”
“Then, go ahead.”
I sat down on a wooden box.
Eunbi nodded gently, sticking her butt out.
“Go.”
“Go.”
“Eun.”
“Eun.”
“Bi.”
“Bi.”
“Two more times like that.”
“I’ve never even shown my dad three times…”
“Come on, other students might come. We’re short on time, hurry up. Go.”
“Go…”
Rustle, rustle.
Eunbi shook her butt and wrote her name in the air.
Very loudly and repeatedly, three times.
It would have been more fun if a puppy tail was wagging, but unfortunately, it wasn’t, which was regrettable.
It was also regrettable not being able to see the face blushing with embarrassment, bowed close to the ground.
“If I get a chance, I should try asking the heavens. But shaking a rabbit tail might not even cause a stir…”
Still, it should be entertaining.
Most likely, if I even dared to speak, I would get hit with a heavy hammer from the sky, feeling like my head would explode.
Anyway, I decided to be content with this.
I lightly clapped my hands to signal Go Eun-bi to stop.
“Well done. If I had a smartphone now, I would have recorded it.”
“You were going to record this? Wow, seriously… Oh no, my youth is all gone… Mom, what am I going to do….”
It seemed like Go Eun-bi made a sobbing sound.
She sat crouched at the spot where her name was written with her bottom, burying her head into her knees.
She seemed unable to lift her head due to embarrassment.
I decided to comfort her.
“It’s okay, Eun-bi. I’m the only one who will remember today’s events. If I don’t say anything, no one will know. I’ll keep it a secret.”
“Really?”
“And when the day comes for you to get married, I’ll go to the wedding hall and tell people. My classmate Go Eun-bi once wrote her name with her bottom. It was really fun back then, but I regret not being able to share it with the people here, especially the man you’re marrying.”
“Oh, please don’t! Then I won’t send you a wedding invitation, Gyenwoo.”
“You can just show up without an invitation. I’ll make sure to generously contribute to the congratulatory gift.”
“Congratulatory gift? Oh… right, you were from a wealthy family.”
“Well, there was that kind of thing back then anyway. We’ll all laugh it off together.”
“Hey, Gyenwoo? I don’t want to become a laughingstock like that.”
“Oh, I should say this to your future husband. He hasn’t seen it, right? I have, but in the past.”
“No! Punch the memory and forget it!”
Go Eun-bi suddenly stood up and punched me.
Her punch was as light as a feather.
I didn’t dodge and took her punch.
***
I couldn’t gather all the supplies alone, and it must have been time for lunch.
Go Eun-bi, her friends, and I decided to have lunch together.
After knocking down the test-takers who came to get supplies, we found a suitable spot.
“Oh! There’s a valley over there. How about eating there?”
“We needed boiling water anyway, so we can get it from there.”
“I should wash up lightly before eating! I was feeling so uncomfortable because I couldn’t even wash my face properly!”
“…You didn’t wash up?”
“And did you wash up? Well, Gyenwoo, you could just wash with the water you eat….”
“How can you wash with water? There’s a Clean Magic, use that to wash.”
“If you wash with Clean Magic, you won’t feel like you’re washing! You have to wipe it yourself to wash! You should wash up too!”
Go Eun-bi seemed like a helpless puppy.
Having discovered the valley, she blinked her eyes and urged me to wash.
I reluctantly took off my top, rolled up my sleeves, and entered the valley.
The water had risen.
We washed ourselves lightly with our backs turned to each other.
“Look, there are examinees over there.”
“True. Since there’s water on this side, they must have come to rest. Or maybe they came to eat?”
Meanwhile, near the valley, besides us, other examinees sporadically appeared.
They also noticed us.
“….”
However, without much reaction, they turned their backs on us.
Implicitly, we agreed not to engage in a tug-of-war during meals and to pretend not to notice each other.
Even though I had no intention of blindly attacking, I decided to relax for a moment.
Filling our stomachs was the priority.
Upon returning to the water’s edge, we decided to have lunch.
There was an ample supply of provisions, so there was no need to worry about food.
“There’s three-minute curry and rice? Here’s instant rice too. We can make a meal out of this!”
“Since we also have meatballs, let’s eat… I’ll have cup ramen, will you each have one too?”
“Ramen sounds good! Let’s eat! Let’s finish it all!”
Each of us took on a role and began preparing lunch.
Go Eun-bi cooked the rice, and I boiled water from the stream.
The examinees’ tasks were to pour water into the ramen, heat up the curry and meatballs, and keep track of time.
Before long, we were eating lunch.
“Ah, so delicious. These meatballs are amazing.”
Go Eun-bi expressed her delight after tasting the meatballs.
I slurped up the cup ramen.
Indeed, ramen eaten inside the gate was tastier than the usual one.
Soon, under Go Eun-bi’s lead, we decided to belatedly introduce ourselves.
“Once we eat together, we’re friends! We’ll probably see each other at the academy, so let’s at least say hi! Everyone knows me, so Gyung-woo and you guys….”
“Hello, my name is….”
“I am….”
“Nice to meet you.”
“I’m Do Gyung-woo. Pleasure meeting you. Let’s get along well from now on.”
I exchanged brief introductions with the three examinees.
Since Go Eun-bi confidently called them friends, they must be good people.
I decided to remember their names.
Having thus eased our guard against each other, we agreed to exchange information as we roamed the island.
In the midst of that, the information I desired unexpectedly came from Go Eun-bi.
“Come to think of it, there was someone like that. Acting as if they were examiners, challenging examinees to fights as if evaluating them for elimination or passing. So if you fail, they take your exam ticket, but if you pass, even if you win, they don’t take your ticket? Their skills seemed above average, so we watched from afar and ran away….”
No doubt. She was talking about Yi Ga-hyun.
I became interested in her words.
“What did that person look like?”
“Hmm? Well… first of all, it was a woman. Her exam ticket was yellow. Come to think of it, it’s strange that someone with that skill level had a yellow ticket. Did she mess up a qualification test due to bad luck? Oh, she deviated off course. She seemed to handle dual swords, was quite skilled in martial arts….”
“Where are we right now?”
“No, I don’t know. We ran away in the middle of it all. Even if I did know, by now, wouldn’t that person have gone somewhere else? Oh, but judging by their actions, it seems like they are looking for people who have collected a lot of exam tickets.”
“Eunbi.”
“Yeah?”
When Go Eunbi said that much,
I could think of a way to find Lee Gahyeon.
No, a way to lure her in.
“If I can’t find her, I’ll just make Lee Gahyeon come to me, right?”
If the necessary ingredients were there.
I had collected a large number of exam tickets, and Go Eunbi was good at spreading rumors.
So, it should be enough to lure Lee Gahyeon out from wherever she was.
“Do you want to make a deal with me?”
“A deal? What kind of deal out of the blue?”
“I’ll help you get a lot of exam tickets.”
I raised the corner of my mouth.