Seocó, short for Seoul Comic World.
I heard there are such events, but I had never actually been to one.
Images of people in cosplay wandering around and places selling off underage characters flickered through my mind. It was an unhealthy perception.
Naturally, there was a bit of preconceived notion, given that it’s a holy land for anime otakus in Korea.
For sure, Siyeon had a few experiences from elementary school when she went with her friends.
Thinking back, was it too early to let her go back then?
With such thoughts swirling in my mind, I hesitantly responded to Siyeon’s invitation with an unusually unconfident demeanor.
“I’ve never been to anything like that…”
It’s natural to feel intimidated by a first experience with anything.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go, but I couldn’t help but murmur, feeling a bit shriveled up, unable to just bite the bullet and accept Siyeon’s suggestion.
Then, Siyeon gave me a reassuring look as if to say not to worry and pressed down on my shoulder from above, saying as if to leave it to her.
“It’s okay! I know all about it!”
“Ugh…”
Now, unlike when we were in elementary school, I could feel the strength coming from the pressing shoulder.
With a buoyant bounce weighed down, I felt like I was shrinking.
I was already on the shorter side compared to the other kids in class; I wished she wouldn’t press down from above.
In my previous life, I didn’t care much about my height, and by the time I was a student, I ranked fairly high among my peers…
But now, take a look at this; I couldn’t escape the bottom ranks in height every year.
Whenever someone got a little close, they would pet my head from above, so even if I didn’t want to pay attention, it was impossible not to notice.
They thought it was cute in their own way, calling it a positive expression, but the recipient feels oddly weird about it.
“Just when I’m short, to be pressed down even more…”
As if producing a squeaky sound like a doll being pressed, I squeaked out a sound, and Sunhyuk sitting next to me poked the very part I was concerned about without hesitation.
A short word slipped out reflexively.
“Shut up.”
“Ah, Seocó… I want to go too.”
Dongha complained, his chin resting on the desk, his head rolling from side to side.
“Why? You can just go.”
I was baffled; he had gone all the way to Busan to get a magical girl autograph, and now he couldn’t even make it to Seoul? I poked his side with my foot while wearing a puzzled expression.
Hmm, this softness… might be softer than any cushion.
Just then, while feeling a sense of relief with my toes, Dongha muttered gloomily, ignoring the toes poking his side.
“They say we can’t go during vacation; at least finish all your homework before going…”
“Just do it.”
“Ughhh…”
When I rebutted that it can be done, Dongha mumbled incoherently as if his intelligence had decreased.
If he’s like this in the first year without any exams, what’s he going to do in the second year?
During the break right after the fifth period, the sixth and seventh periods on alternate Wednesdays are club activities.
Though they are called the sixth and seventh periods, they are practically closer to free time.
It was almost like school was over.
So right after the fifth period ended, our homeroom teacher came in as if for the closing remarks and left us with the usual ending comments.
“Everyone, enjoy the remaining two hours of club activities and let’s all get home quickly so our parents won’t worry, alright?”
“Yes-”
The lazy replies of students signaling the end of class.
As soon as our teacher’s closing remarks finished, groups of students clustered outside our classroom rushed in.
These were the kids who used our classroom for their club activities.
What was the name again? The Literary Sharing Club?
I think that was the name.
Anyway, we headed out, crossing paths with those second-year kids.
Siyeon and I were headed to Class 3 of the second years, where the Coloring Book club activities would start.
Despite the grand name being drawn out in English, simply put, it was just coloring, something you might do in kindergarten.
The group was so small, barely reaching five members.
Popular ones include the Game Technology Research Club. The mere mention of “game” hints at playing games outside, leading to competition as fierce as the sky.
Additionally, possibly due to the influence of Japanese animation peaking, the Voice Acting Club had surprisingly high popularity.
Of course, there are plenty of sports clubs too, but if you ask why I chose such an unpopular club like this…
“Let’s just fill two pages today and have fun?”
“Yes-”
For now, the activity is simple.
We go to a café or something, sit down, color two pages of black-and-white pictures, and it’s done.
The remaining time is spent casually fiddling with our smartphones or ordering snacks to eat.
Going to some high-competition clubs or sports-related groups would do no good.
In addition to that, after avoiding clubs that seem tiring, like the Reading and Discussion Club, I ended up satisfied.
It turned out to be quite satisfactory; there weren’t too many people.
Gathering around, we’d run behind the club advisor and casually do our coloring while fiddling with our smartphones for two hours.
Among those focused on coloring, Siyeon was the only one really concentrating.
Even then, with tools limited to colored pencils, the results didn’t quite match her efforts.
Just when she had filled several pages of the coloring book with colors.
The club advisor, the science teacher for the second years, casually brought up a topic.
“Hey kids, what do you want to eat? It’s not my money anyway, but the school’s money, so order whatever you want.”
“Uh, um…”
The students hesitated to respond, even though they had become comfortable with their club friends and teacher over the winter.
Seeing their struggling state was frustrating, so I reached over to the center of the table to inspect the menu.
There were about six people including the teacher.
‘With this number of people…’
I scanned the table then began selecting something we could share.
Since it seemed like nobody would make a suggestion in this atmosphere, I decided to take the initiative and told the teacher.
“How about we each get a drink or coffee, and order two honey breads and kaya toasts to share?”
“Oh, sure. What does everyone want to drink?”
The teacher accepted the suggestion lightly and began asking each seated student, matching their choices to drinks or coffee.
With the shared menu settled, the club members appeared to feel confident enough to choose what they wanted to drink.
“I’ll have… vanilla latte.”
“Hot chocolate?”
“I’ll go for caramel macchiato.”
“How about you guys?”
Before long, Siyeon and I had become a set menu.
When the club’s advisor called on us, we weren’t called by our names, but rather referred to as ‘you guys.’
It felt like we were already bound together in some way.
“I’ll have brown sugar bubble tea.”
Anyway, setting that aside, I chose the trendy bubble tea.
Once the answers came back from this side, it was time for Siyeon’s answer to be given.
However, only the sound of colored pencils was heard, and no answer came back to the teacher.
Something seemed off, so I looked at Siyeon sitting right next to me, and she was diligently scraping her colored pencil against her book.
She must be so focused that she didn’t hear the surrounding sounds.
“Siyeon?”
I poked her slumped shoulder lightly to call her, finally prompting her to lift her head slightly.
Noticing that the tone of my voice carried a hint of questioning, Siyeon wore a puzzled expression as if to say ‘Did you call me?’
“Oh, yeah?”
“What are you going to drink?”
Frantically putting down her colored pencil, Siyeon quickly scanned the menu.
Seeing such a cute action, the teacher chuckled, then looked at me with conviction in her eyes as she asked.
“This one tends to miss surroundings when focused, huh?”
“Yes, somewhat.”
“I’ll have strawberry latte!”
Nodding in agreement to that, I expressed my approval, and Siyeon’s order came in a bit late.
Maybe the teacher had difficulty remembering all the orders, as she took out a pen from her clothing and began noting them down one by one.
“So, that’s strawberry latte, vanilla latte, brown sugar bubble tea, hot chocolate, caramel macchiato, honey bread, and two kaya toasts… right?”
Going through the process of double-checking to ensure nothing was wrong.
“Yes.”
Only after hearing our replies did the teacher get up from her seat and head towards the counter, her pen clicking as she tucked it away.
A moment later, she returned to our table with a calling bell.
“Wow, nowadays it’s so expensive, you can barely get anything.”
Maybe surprised by the prices anew, the teacher returned to her seat with a sigh mixed with admiration but in a bad sense.
Considering that we could share snacks, we ordered less than I expected.
Curious about how much it totaled, I casually cast my gaze towards the receipt and asked.
“How much was it?”
“39,900 won, almost 40,000 won.”
Taking the receipt offered, I checked and found it accurately totaled 39,900 won, including the drinks the teacher ordered.
For some reason, it reminded me of those home shopping ads I often see on TV.
29,900 won, 39,900 won… why do they all end in 100 won short?
Intrigued by what the teacher actually ordered, I examined the menu listed on the receipt.
Strawberry latte, vanilla latte, my order of brown sugar bubble tea, hot chocolate, caramel macchiato…
And, a chocolate cookie shake?
‘Surprisingly, the kids have good taste.’
I thought maybe it’d be filled with something plain like Americano or café au lait, but I found myself blinking in surprise at the unexpected menu while staring intently at the receipt.
Damn, it does sound delicious.
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