Chapter 170
After escaping the strong winds of Seongsan Ilchulbong, we boarded the bus again.
The members, who were starting to feel a little empty after walking around outside taking pictures, grabbed their manager and started throwing a tantrum, asking for food.
"I told you we were going to eat mackerel, kids! Sit down! You're stretching my clothes!"
"We failed our mission, so we're not suddenly turning around at Galchi House and going somewhere else, right?"
"No, no!"
"I've seen this kind of giving and taking away a lot, so I'm suspicious, teacher."
"Don't worry, this isn't that kind of entertainment!"
Manager Hyung was losing energy in real time even though we hadn't even finished half of our daytime schedule.
I had expected it to some extent since I had seen the members playing around with each other a lot, but seeing it and experiencing it firsthand are two completely different things.
Well, why did you volunteer to be the teacher?
It was only after the manager had to remind them several times that he was going to eat dried pollack that he finally managed to dispel the hungry members' suspicions.
"Guys, didn't you eat a lot before we got on the plane? Are you hungry already?"
"Teacher, it's already been over 4 hours since we last ate."
"When I was at the dorm, I would get hungry three hours after eating breakfast."
"... I'm hungry."
When even Ji Yoon-chul, who was always silent, said he was hungry, Manager Hyung couldn't continue talking.
Fortunately, the distance from Seongsan Ilchulbong to the hairtail specialty restaurant was not that far.
After about 20 minutes of driving, we were able to get off in front of a quiet restaurant.
"Is this really a good restaurant?"
Yoo Minha spoke while looking around sharply.
"If it's a famous place, it should be really crowded."
"We rented this whole place out, so there's no one else there. It's delicious here. I'm sure of it."
"You rented the whole thing? Awesome."
"Of course. Who am I?"
Manager Hyung proudly puffed out his chest and waited for praise, but it seemed like other people were on the members' minds.
"Thank you, CEO!"
"Sigma, after all! The best welfare, everyone!"
"I love you, CEO!"
It was obvious that the CEO of Sigma Entertainment was supporting our own content, so Manager Hyung was once again at a loss for words.
I patted his back and offered words of encouragement.
"Teacher, cheer up."
"Ugh, Karis, thank you! After all, there's no one else but you―!"
"There are still two days left, so there is a long way to go. I think it is too early to collapse now."
"―Is that what you meant?"
The silver hairtail specialty store was quite large.
It was really strange that only the members and staff were using such a large restaurant.
It seemed like the other members were the same.
"Something feels strange."
"We are the only real guests."
"Then it wouldn't be wrong to say this?"
Yoo Minha raised his hands high and shouted loudly.
"Here, we rented!"
Thanks to his vocalization, the sound came out more powerful than expected.
The members' reactions were momentarily lost due to Yoo Min-ha's sudden actions.
It seemed like everyone didn't know how to react.
"I guess that's what you wanted to say, Min-ha."
"Yeah, yeah! It seemed cool when the chaebols said things like that in a cartoon or something."
"It's good that your wish has come true."
I calmly drank the water and gave an appropriate answer in my own way.
Kang Si-yoon burst out laughing at the sight.
"In my opinion, you and Min-ha are soul mates."
"Soulmate?"
"It feels like a little bit of a nerd recognizes another nerd, right?"
"I, I had that exact feeling from the moment I first saw Karis hyung- no Karis! I thought we'd be a perfect fit!"
Yoo Min-ha nodded vigorously and agreed with Kang Si-yoon's words.
"I'm saying this for the first time, but I also wanted to write in my self-introduction that I really like comics. But honestly, I'm a little embarrassed to write something like that confidently. So I thought about it for a while and gave up, thinking, "Oh, I can't do this." But when I saw Karis confidently say during the level test that he likes romance novels, I was really.... amazed."
"Haha.... I also thought about it for a long time before making my decision."
"Really?"
Heo Yu-bin, who was eating the fish cake that was served as a side dish, made a slightly surprised expression.
"From the beginning, I thought you had a unique way of speaking, so you weren't hiding anything."
"I couldn't help it because I couldn't control my speech."
"I also thought that Karis had no intention of hiding his tastes, but this is surprising."
As Chae Eun-gyu continued to listen to Heo Yu-bin, he began to have an ominous feeling.
Well, there was always something to be said about this pattern.
"I told you, when I think about it again during the sports day, it's really scary."
"Eun-gyu, Eun-gyu! I've heard that story so many times!"
"Eun-gyu is a bit like my dad. When my dad drinks a little, he starts talking about the same thing over and over again."
"Guys, weren't we talking about Karis?"
This time, Chae Eun-gyu brought up my dark history from the sports day as usual, but Song Hyung-bin and Heo Yu-bin changed their goals in an instant.
The members simply cannot bear not teasing their eldest brother during Yaja time.
Thanks to that, the idea of my dark history being mentioned again naturally fell through.
"The hairtail has arrived~."
Our talk was interrupted for a moment as a grilled silver hairtail appeared.
The boss said that there was a special way to eat this kind of grilled meat deliciously and picked up two spoons.
Then he began to dismantle the croaker with incredible skill.
"Wow!"
"How do you do this so well with a spoon?"
"Haha, it could be possible in a few decades."
The boss quickly removed the intestines and small bones of the hairtail, then used his secret technique to lift up the thick spine in one go.
All the bones and internal organs were removed in the blink of an eye, leaving only the delicious meat of the cutlassfish.
"Once the bones are all separated, use a spoon like this."
"Oh.... Ohh!"
"Wow!"
The members who watched the galchi dismantling show from the front row sent heartfelt exclamations of admiration.
The boss used a spoon like a knife and cut the mackerel flesh into bite-sized pieces.
And then he put rice on top of a piece of lean meat.
"Okay, who should I give this to?"
"This is obvious―"
"No! No! If you don't play, you lose!"
The moment Song Hyung-bin was about to say something, Kang Si-yoon loudly shouted out, "rock-paper-scissors."
We unconsciously held out our hands and played rock-paper-scissors.
"...."
"I told you, Ji Yoon-chul secretly has golden hands!"
"Hey, maybe back in the day when you were a kid, you pulled out a ton of cards."
Ji Yoon-chul, who accidentally became the final winner, received the boss' spoon right away.
Ji Yoon-chul's eyes widened slightly as he chewed and swallowed the delicious dried pollack and rice.
"... It's really delicious."
"Hey, that's enough."
"If Yoon-chul says something like that, then it must be delicious!"
We enjoyed dinner without hesitation after seeing the truth between the eyebrows of the inexpressive Ji Yoon-chul.
The combination of salty seasoning and mild, soft mackerel was truly fantastic.
It's definitely in the top 3 foods I've eaten recently.
After finishing off the spicy and sweet grilled hairtail as an additional menu, we patted our full bellies and got back on the bus for our next schedule.
According to the schedule, it is now time to see the columnar jointing.
"Teacher, I think I ate too much, and I'm getting food drowsiness.... Can't I just go to sleep? "
"I'm sleepy too...."
"I really enjoyed the meal."
"...."
"Ji Yoon-chul is already asleep. No way?"
Everyone was suffering from anorexia due to the aftereffects of predation.
Even Ji Yoon-chul, who had the ability to fall asleep anywhere, was already in a deep sleep.
"Guys, I'd like to make you sleep as much as possible, but it's not that far from here to the columnar joint. So just hold on for a little longer, okay?"
"Zzzzzz...."
"Hey, Kang Si-yoon, don't pretend to be asleep when you're not!"
Everyone outwardly made fun of Manager Hyung but still tried to overcome sleepiness.
The rest of the members, except for Ji Yoon-chul, who had already gone to dreamland, chattered while looking at the scenery outside.
'It's amazing every time I see it.'
I looked at Ji Yoon-chul, who was breathing heavily in the seat next to me.
Since we were roommates, I saw Ji Yoon-chul sleeping every day, but it was amazing to see him fall asleep so quickly.
Ji Yoon-chul and Chae Eun-gyu both sleep a lot, but I would say they sleep a little differently.
Chae Eun-gyu is the type of person who sleeps so deeply that he doesn't even notice when someone carries him.
Ji Yoon-chul, on the other hand, wakes up easily when someone wakes him up but falls asleep right away as soon as he places his head on something soft.
While I was observing how long Ji Yoon-chul would stay asleep, we arrived at the columnar joint before I knew it.
"... I have to get off, hyung?"
"Yes, Yoon-chul. And be careful; the Yaja time is still in progress."
"Ah."
Ji Yoon-chul opened his eyes as soon as the bus stopped and spoke to me politely, as if he hadn't logged into the real world yet.
I pointed to the camera and gently reminded him that filming was still in full swing.
If you can see the wide plains and the sea at a glance from Seongsan Ilchulbong, the columnar joints are spectacular with their uniquely shaped cliffs and rocks and the waves crashing into white foam.
"Guys, look here!"
"Wait a minute, teacher. If you take a picture there now, it's too close-"
Click!
"Oh, really! Teacher, you shouldn't take pictures like this!"
"Let me see how it turned out."
Here too, as expected, our manager took a bunch of pictures for us, just like on a real school trip.
The members, who were very sensitive about how their faces appeared, thoroughly reviewed the manager's photos.
As a result, Kang Si-yoon came to a truly shocking conclusion.
"In my opinion, Teacher is worse at taking pictures than Karis."
"Really? I want to see it too!"
"Is it worse than the ghost pic that Karis took earlier? Really?"
"... I'm actually better at taking pictures than before."
Even I, who was standing still, suffered unintended damage.
Am I really that bad at taking pictures?
"It's true."
"Teacher, it's backlit here, so we can't see our faces at all."
"How many shots did you take from this angle?"
The members who had semi-forcibly confiscated the manager's camera and were checking the photos sighed softly.
In particular, Ji Yoon-chul would open his mouth every once in a while and deliver a fatal blow.
"... I thought all managers were good at taking pictures, but there are exceptions."
"Ack!"
Manager Hyung actually grabbed his chest as if a knife had been stuck in it.
It was a very heartbreaking scene, but the heartless guys ended up taking turns taking pictures among themselves like they did at Seongsan Ilchulbong.
"One, two, three!"
"Seleste!"
The group photo was replaced with a selfie using Ji Yoon-chul's long arms.
A few tourists passed by, watching us play noisily.
Since they were mostly quite old, they didn't seem to know that we are idols.
"Oh my, you came as a group from school. Did you even bring a camera with you?"
"Oh, yes! I brought it to take a video too!"
"Then it's good; it's good. Have fun~."
"Thank you!"
He left with some words of encouragement, telling everyone to have fun.
"We definitely look like students."
"I'm not like a student, Siyoon. I'm a real student."
"Oh, that's right. Now that I think about it, our Eun-gyu too―!"
"Guys, I told you to stop poking where it hurts, right?"
Strangely, whenever the topic of age comes up, the arrows turn towards Chae Eun-gyu.
After finishing the columnar joint tour, we headed to our next destination, a chocolate factory, in a friendly atmosphere.
Little did we know that tonight the pain of betrayal and fierce bloodshed would befall us.
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