28 – Rest (2)
All the training is over, and the scheduled vacation period has been given.
In fact, calling it a vacation is a stretch; it’s just spending two days on this passenger ship. After that, it’s back to the Hanyul Military Academy for lectures as usual.
Still, it’s a much-needed break, so it needs to be spent wisely.
Considering there are only about 30 combatants and students left on this passenger ship, more than 400 students are still trapped on the island.
They’re probably cleaning up the island or repairing damaged structures by now. Including the girl I eliminated with my own hands, the one with the annoying smell of a mop, Baek Ju-hee.
It’s unfair enough to go through the training; now they have to clean up afterward. I’m grateful I’m not included in that.
Anyway.
A dropout is just a dropout. There’s no reason for me to worry anymore. The training is finally over.
I can enjoy this vacation in my own way. Let’s freely explore the inside of the passenger ship.
So, on the first day of vacation, the first place I visited was….
“Umiyaaa!”
Splash─!
Right into the swimming pool. I jumped in as soon as I entered. The water temperature, neither cold nor hot, felt quite pleasing.
Truly a luxurious cruise.
“What’s Umi? This is a swimming pool! Not the sea!”
By the way, Arna was with me. She was watching me from a distance outside the pool, wearing gym clothes instead of a swimsuit.
“How dare you enter the pool without a swimsuit. What kind of manners are those?”
“What am I supposed to do without a swimsuit! Besides, when did I ever have the chance to prepare a swimsuit? It’s as if you knew from the beginning….”
Perhaps, among the soldiers and students, I might be the only one who brought a swimsuit. Others, including Arna, probably had no idea that training would start on this cruise.
“And! What’s with that strange duck tube again?”
“Is this it?”
By the way, a very cute duck tube was hanging around my waist, just like the swimsuit, prepared in advance.
Quack. Quack.
When I pressed the tube, the duck made a quacking sound. It was incredibly adorable. This is exactly what healing is.
“Ugh, disgusting…”
Meanwhile, Arna scratched her face completely.
To not recognize this cuteness. Arna really doesn’t have an eye for these things.
“If you don’t have a swimsuit, go to the lobby and rent one.”
“I asked about that earlier… um…”
Arna started twisting her body and even blushed her face.
What’s going on?
“The size… there was only the basic size….”
“Oh, I see.”
It seems that a regular swimsuit can’t cover that body. Truly a breastplate monster.
“Then just sit on a sunbed and enjoy the view.”
“Enjoy the view? What nonsense. I was planning to say a few words and leave right away.”
“A few words?”
Is there something you need from me? I looked at Arna with a puzzled expression.
“Well… um… yeah….”
What’s this? Arna is hesitating to speak, unlike her usual self. Is it something awkward to say out loud?
Maybe a loan? Did she come to borrow money from me?
It could be. After all, this cruise ship has a casino inside. It’s a common practice to have a substantial amount of seed money before starting gambling. There’s a saying that money begets money.
“Fine. How much do you need? I’ll lend it to you without interest, especially since you helped during training.”
“What…? Without interest… What are you talking about?”
“You didn’t come for a loan consultation?”
“No, that’s not it!”
Arna shouted in surprise, and then she took a long breath, as if all the tension had been released.
“Hmm… How about a drink later tonight?”
“Alcohol?”
What’s this? He was stumbling over his words as if it was some extraordinary offer. Was he really just suggesting a drink?
“Well… I saw a bar nearby earlier. Since we finished training well, I thought having a drink as a celebration wouldn’t hurt.”
“Are you buying, Arna?”
“….”
It wasn’t a neighborhood bar selling soju. It was a somewhat upscale bar. Surely, a single drink would cost more than ten thousand won.
It’s a bit much to spend my own money on.
“Yes… I’ll buy… I guess.”
“Oh, Arna, you know how to open a wallet. That’s a very good attitude.”
“What nonsense are you talking about again… Anyway, see you later tonight.”
With that, Arna left the swimming pool.
Did he really come to this swimming pool just to say that? Arna was quite a peculiar guy.
“Youth, huh?”
“….”
A deep male voice. I wondered where it was coming from, and it turned out to be from the sunbed right behind me. There lay Sergeant Kim Dong-hak, from the technical corps, as if he had been waiting there.
“How long have you been there?”
“I’ve been here since before you guys arrived.”
Kim Dong-hak got up from the sunbed. And he took off his tacky sunglasses.
“Shin Yoon-seong, you managed to pass quite easily.”
“Well, I was lucky.”
He shifted his gaze toward the entrance of the swimming pool, towards the door Arna had just left.
In reality, I hadn’t done much in training. I had just fetched rations with a spoon. Arna did all the fighting.
Even on the fourth day of training, it was Arna who faced Sergeant Geum Gye-jun.
From Noble mtl dot com
“By the way, who’s the mastermind behind sending the instructors to the island?”
“Of course, it’s me.”
“Can I just yank out that entire beard of yours?”
It was definitely Kim Dong-hak’s doing. This sly old man. I wish his retirement day would come soon. No, should I just retire him from life right here?
“Still, it was somewhat thrilling and fun, wasn’t it?”
“It wasn’t fun at all. Do you know how much I had to crawl to survive in that hellish swamp?”
“Do I have any reason to know?”
Kkhahahaha. Kim Donghak burst into hearty laughter. Seriously, he should consider plucking and twisting that beard.
“Anyway, well done. This training once again surprised me, Shin Yoonsung.”
“What’s there to be surprised about? Just barely passed. As I said earlier, it was luck.”
“No.”
Kim Donghak tilted his head. Then, with a rather serious expression, he asked me a question.
“Do you happen to know about that? How many C-grade Awakeners are there among the successful candidates this time?”
Well, let’s see. The total number of survivors is about 30, so there might be around 5 C-grades, including me.
It could be even more, perhaps up to 10.
“Shin Yoonsung, only you passed among the C-grade Awakeners.”
“…”
“Of course, everyone below that grade also failed.”
Oh my. Does that mean everyone on this passenger ship who is a combatant or a student is only composed of A or B-grade Awakeners?
Of course, Arna is an exception since she’s S-grade.
“In other words, what I want to say through this.”
Kim Donghak stood up from the sunbed. He neatly folded the sunglasses he was holding and tucked them into the pocket of his Hawaiian shirt.
“There’s a reason you’re the only one who survived while everyone else failed. I hope you don’t just think it’s all luck.”
Anyway, it seems like he’s doing something akin to praise. Still, it feels good to be acknowledged by others. Wasn’t it a compliment from Jumking?
“Look forward to the future. Is the next one the midterms?”
“…”
Darn it. Even things you like are fleeting. Now that I’ve barely crossed one hill, a big mountain is already sticking out.
They really don’t give you a chance to rest.
***
On a late night with twinkling stars, I came up to the deck for a moment.
“You were here.”
“Uh…”
There, I happened to find Choe Soeun. She was leaning against the railing, enjoying the sea breeze.
“This, isn’t it yours?”
I held out the lunchbox bag towards Choe Soeun.
Instantly, Choe Soeun’s eyes widened.
“How….”
“Don’t worry, I’ve already done the dishes. I’m quite confident in my dishwashing skills, you know.”
“Uh….”
Choi So-eun suddenly hugged the bag to her chest. She didn’t seem to realize she would come back, unable to close her mouth.
“Did you make it yourself?”
“Yeah… Well, sort of….”
“It was really delicious. I felt like I was having a home-cooked meal after a long time.”
I grabbed the railing. The sea wasn’t visible well because it was night. I could only vaguely confirm the sound of the waves.
“Which one… did you like the most…?”
Choi So-eun, holding the lunch bag, asked me with a very careful expression.
“They were all delicious. But if I had to pick one…”
“….”
Choi So-eun perked up her ears and leaned forward. Like a student waiting for exam results.
“The beef and mushroom stir-fry. That was the best. I even thought of buying instant rice because I was running out of rice while eating.”
“Really…?”
Choi So-eun shook her shoulders in disbelief.
Maybe she thought I was making it up.
“Why don’t you bring a receipt or something if you doubt it?”
“Oh, no… There’s no need for that…”
Choi So-eun, like me, turned her body to look at the sea. Beside me.
In that state, she hesitated to open her mouth.
“You know… how did you know…?”
“The lunch bag, right?”
“Yeah….”
Just by looking at the bag, I guessed the owner right away. From Choi So-eun’s perspective, it must have been surprising and curious.
“A familiar scent came from the bag. While thinking where I smelled it before, you came to mind.”
“Really…? From this bag…?”
Sniff, sniff. Choi So-eun pressed her nose to the bag and began to smell it. However, she shook her head as if she couldn’t smell anything special.
“I don’t usually wear perfume or anything….”
“Then where does the blueberry scent come from?”
“Blueberry?”
Was there something intriguing about it? Choi So-eun, after sniffing her bag, now took a whiff of her own backhand.
“That? It might be shower gel.”
“Shower gel?”
“Yeah, want to smell it? I just showered.”
Choi So-eun extended her backhand.
I’m not a dog. Smelling someone’s scent here?
But I was curious. Just how good of a shower gel could produce a scent like that?
I brought my nose close to Choi So-eun’s backhand.
***
“Oh my! You didn’t forget our promise, did you?”
At the same time, Arna, holding glasses in both hands, was bustling around inside the cruise ship. It was a highball glass with a slice of lemon.
For the record, Arna bought it.
“He’s not in the room, and where on earth did he go?”
I thought he’d come if I waited at the bar. But even after the agreed-upon time had passed, Shin Yoon-sung was nowhere to be seen.
“He wouldn’t purposely stand me up, would he?”
It could be possible. If it’s Shin Yoon-sung, it’s entirely plausible. Isn’t he the kind of man who could do some absurd things anytime, anywhere?
“If that’s the case, I won’t let it slide…!”
Having roughly inspected the inside of the cruise ship, it’s time to go outside now.
Thud, thud.
Arna climbed up the stairs leading to the outside. The deck was the first place she sought.
“As expected…! He was hiding there!”
Arna took confident strides. A highball glass not overflowing with liquid.
“Huh….”
But.
Those steps didn’t go far.
Shin Yoon-sung wasn’t alone there. There were others.
Right next to him were Choi So-eun and a military policeman.
…”
Arna couldn’t dare to pry into the space between the two.
Currently, Shin Yoon-seong was kissing Choi Soi-eun’s back of the hand.
It felt like watching a scene from a movie.
The starry night sky, a glamorous cruise ship, and even the gently rippling waves. On top of that, a man and a woman were whispering love to each other.
“What is this… You said she’s not your girlfriend…”
He said that on the island. Was that all a lie? Moreover, he had broken his promise with Arna who was here.
Lie after lie.
The feeling of betrayal couldn’t help but intensify.
“In the end… I’ve been cheated on…”
Arna turned away with a wry smile. It was a choice to quietly descend from the deck.
These two highball glasses with lemon seem like something I’ll have to drink alone.