2.6 – Field Trip

A week before the trip to the amusement park, the weekly weather forecast predicted rain on the day of the field trip. Because of that, more than a few people were anxious until the very last moment, but on the actual day, it was sunny without a single cloud. It was perfect weather for walking around an amusement park.

Unlike the teachers, who were busy avoiding the sunlight with sunglasses or hats, the students threw themselves into the early May sunshine, which was starting to feel stinging. Their hearts, which had become sluggish and damp while adjusting to the new school year and going through midterms, dried up fresh and fragrant like laundry hung under the spring sun. The express bus carrying the excited students was noisy from the moment of departure until the moment of arrival.

Many students wanted to wear civilian clothes, but the school decided that they should travel in their uniforms even on the field trip day. Nevertheless, not a few students, wanting to look stylish regardless, wore sweatshirts instead of uniform shirts or threw on windbreakers or cardigans instead of uniform jackets, sweating profusely.

Seung-pyo wore his uniform normally. The only difference from his usual school attire was that he wore it lightly, without a jacket or tie, and with his shirt sleeves rolled up.

The students who got off the line of parked buses were more energetic than ever. In the midst of this, Seung-pyo, who was about a head taller than the other students, couldn’t help but stand out like a towering lighthouse, and this became even more apparent as they lined up at the ticket booth.

“Wow… As expected, since he’s so tall, he doesn’t even look like he’s wearing a uniform.”

“If we get lost, we can just look for Oh Seung-pyo.”

“I don’t want to hang out with you.”

The students hanging out with Seung-pyo entered the amusement park while grumbling things they didn’t actually mean. Perhaps because it was early on a weekday morning, the vast park was filled almost entirely with students from Ilyang Boys’ High School, and other visitors were only seen here and there.

As soon as they entered, some students started running blindly without even deciding on a destination. Seung-pyo’s friends clicked their tongues while watching that group.

“What’s the point of running? You have to make a reservation to ride anyway.”

“What should we ride first?”

“Oh Seung, you’re going to ride the extreme train, right?”

Seung-pyo answered while looking into the app.

“The roller coaster is already fully booked for the next two hours.”

“Huh… Let’s reserve it quickly. We’ll have to ride it after lunch.”

Seung-pyo touched the app to reserve the panda viewing, but there was a notice stating that due to internal circumstances at the enclosure, it would open from 12 PM. In the end, since both the roller coaster and the panda enclosure—his biggest goals—could only be enjoyed in the afternoon, the morning became unexpectedly leisurely.

“Then what should we do?”

“Let’s just walk around and look at things slowly. It’s been a while since we’ve been here.”

At Seung-pyo’s suggestion as he started to lead the way, the other boys agreed, saying “Right, right,” and began to follow.

Even without riding attractions or entering specific areas, the spacious park was lined with interesting sculptures, shops, and animal pens, so there was never a dull moment.

“Let’s buy those too!”

One of the boys walking with Seung-pyo pointed to a souvenir shop. Groups of students in the same uniform were emerging, giggling while wearing animal-ear headbands over their short hair. Seung-pyo snorted.

“I’ll pass.”

“Why? You should wear one so people can see you and find their way.”

He already stood out on his own because of his height; if he wore a ridiculous headband, he would become a human sponge, absorbing every single gaze around him. The boys, who chuckled and teased him after seeing through his thoughts, gestured toward the souvenir shop.

“You don’t have to wear one, just come look.”

The group of boys turned toward the souvenir shop. Thinking it would be boring to wait outside alone, Seung-pyo followed his friends without complaint.

Inside the shop, headbands and hats of various designs were on display. The last time Seung-pyo had visited neverland was in his second year of middle school, and there were considerably more designs to choose from than back then. The types of animals decorating the headbands seemed to have become more diverse as well.

“Look at this. It looks hilarious.”

Just then, another group of students entered the souvenir shop noisily. It was the moment Seung-pyo was fiddling with a headband that had a whole shark plushie with its mouth wide open.

Ryu Jae-min, who was entering the souvenir shop with other students, spotted Seung-pyo and flinched, stopping in his tracks. Seung-pyo also awkwardly put down the headband he was holding.

“What’s wrong?”

A classmate entering with Jae-min noticed the unusual reaction and asked. Jae-min quickly shook his head and smiled.

“Oh, nothing. Go on in.”

Seung-pyo put down the shark headband and this time picked up a headband with a whole crocodile plushie with its mouth wide open. Meanwhile, Jae-min and the other students fully entered the shop and were browsing headbands among themselves. Seung-pyo swallowed hard at the feeling of an awkwardness, which no one else seemed to notice, instantly surrounding the area.

…After his mood had strangely sunk and he had skipped lunch, the relationship between Seung-pyo and Jae-min had become silent without any particular catalyst. Despite the fact that he had spent a sleepless night imagining how Ryu Jae-min would respond to his request after sending the carefully filmed masturbation video the day before, nothing steamy happened between them starting the very next day.

The last time they had kissed was already a week ago. Since Seung-pyo didn’t call him out first, Jae-min remained silent. It was as if Jae-min was saying that the kisses they had exchanged were only because Oh Seung-pyo had insisted and wanted them; there were no signals from Jae-min whatsoever. Naturally, he hadn’t received an answer to his question about whether he could suck his nipples. Perhaps it was already too late to get an answer.

Of course, Seung-pyo’s personality wasn’t so timid that he couldn’t even start a conversation due to awkwardness just because they hadn’t spoken for a few days. If only his mood improved, he could call out Ryu Jae-min—who had been ignoring him until yesterday—and kiss him anytime.

However, the discomfort he began to feel immediately after hearing Jae-min’s declaration that they “aren’t friends” remained unresolved, like an untangled knot in a corner of his heart. Whenever he thought of Ryu Jae-min, it made even the excited desire that usually came first become complicatedly twisted.

“Ryu Jae-min, try this on. I think it would suit you.”

“I’m fine. You guys pick yours.”

“We all have to wear them for the photos to be funny.”

The voices of students could be heard not far away. Seung-pyo shifted his position slightly, pretending to choose an item he wouldn’t even wear. He was a little curious about what kind of headband would suit Ryu Jae-min.

Unable to withstand the students’ persistence, Jae-min was wearing a headband in front of the mirror. It was a headband in the shape of lesser panda ears, mixed with white and dark brown.

Ryu Jae-min was too tall to be a lesser panda, but his fierce yet pouty expression seemed a bit similar. After wearing the headband for a moment, Jae-min smiled awkwardly and put it back.

“Ah, I won’t wear it. This is embarrassing.”

“You brat… are you still managing your image even in a place like this?”

“You guys wear them a lot. I won’t pretend not to know you even if you wear them.”

In the end, Jae-min didn’t choose a headband and left the souvenir shop before Seung-pyo’s group. Not long after, Seung-pyo’s friends each picked a headband and headed toward the checkout counter. The boys looked at Seung-pyo, who was standing behind them, and asked.

“Are you buying one too?”

The boys asked after seeing the lesser panda headband in Seung-pyo’s hand. When Seung-pyo gave a single nod, they reacted with surprise.

“Oh Seung picked something damn cute.”

“Isn’t a panda and a lesser panda just different? You picked this knowing that, right?”

“I know.”

Ignoring the boys’ fuss, Seung-pyo immediately put on the headband he had just bought.

When they stepped outside, the sun seemed to have risen higher in the short interval. One student checked the app and hurriedly reached out.

“Let’s go to ghost world! There’s an open reservation right now.”

They were lucky, as they thought it would be hard to use since it was a popular attraction. After hurriedly completing the reservation, the students moved with hurried steps, almost running.

However, as they approached ghost world, some of the students’ faces began to turn pale. They had been fine when making the reservation in the heat of the moment, but as the thought of actually entering hit them, fear rushed in.

“I can’t even watch horror movies, is it okay for me to go in here?”

“Oh Seung, aren’t you scared?”

At one student’s question, Seung-pyo nodded firmly.

“I don’t believe in ghosts.”

“I don’t believe in them either! But it’s still scary even if you don’t believe! The makeup is scary and the sounds are scary.”

“Then are you just going to wait outside and be bored? It’s fine if we go in as a group.”

The words of his companion, who possessed a reliable physique nearing 190 centimeters, breathed baseless courage into the group facing the adventure. Alright, let’s go! The terrified students regained their spirits and arrived at the entrance of ghost world.

“Huh?”

The Ilyang Boys’ High School students who had rushed toward ghost world weren’t the only ones. The students who happened to meet smiled and greeted each other.

“Your route is the same as ours! We met at the shop earlier too.”

“They say it’s more fun if you go in as a group. Let’s all go in together.”

Amidst the students whose voices grew loud with excitement, only Seung-pyo and Jae-min looked at the distant mountains with reluctant expressions, saying nothing. As they did, the student who had been with Jae-min smiled and pointed to Seung-pyo’s head.

“Oh Seung-pyo bought a headband? We told Ryu Jae-min to buy the same one earlier, but he said he was embarrassed and didn’t want to.”

“Yeah.”

Having nothing special to say in response, Seung-pyo answered shortly. Whether Oh Seung-pyo answered or not, the students were preoccupied with laughing and chatting.

A guide, painted to look like a ghost bleeding from the mouth and various parts of the face, lined up the eight students in pairs. He pulled Seung-pyo and Jae-min’s arms to stand them side by side and said.

“Since you have to enter in line, it would be best for the two tallest people to stand at the very back.”

Paired up in an unexpected place, Seung-pyo and Jae-min stiffened their expressions like people heading into a battlefield rather than a haunted house at an amusement park. In contrast to the excited faces of the students in front of them, the uncomfortable and cold atmosphere between the two was even more vivid, but no one in that spot cared about the chill passing between them.

The preparations for entry were complete. Contrary to the scary makeup, the guide, who spoke in a bright and kind voice, gave a final warning.

“It’s dark inside, so please be careful! Absolutely do not run. You might get hurt if you fall. And even if you encounter a ghost, you must absolutely not hit or fight them.”

“Yes—!”

Despite the guide’s warning, the momentum of the students awaiting entry was strong enough to knock down all the ghosts. However, as soon as they stepped into ghost world, they instantly lost the spirit they had just shown and took hesitant, narrow steps.

The inside was pitch black, with only bluish arrows attached to the walls on either side to indicate the direction they should proceed. Walking cautiously as if crossing a suspension bridge, the children at the front of the line looked back and grumbled.

“Ah, wait. I’m coming, so stop pushing.”

“We didn’t push!”

“Fuck, then who pushed me!”

Aaaah! The children, frightened by their own conversation, began screaming already. Even though not a single fake skeleton had popped out yet, the excitement of the children, consumed by a fear of their own making, was reaching its peak.

“You guys, calm down.”

Just as a bewildered Seung-pyo was trying to soothe the overly excited children, a thunderous roar suddenly echoed, and white lights flashed like lightning through the dark corridor. Every time the vision brightened, the figure of a gruesome ghost appeared, and the children’s screams grew even louder.

“Aaaah!”

“I’m sorry! Please spare me!”

With eighteen-year-old boys screaming in such a narrow space, it felt as if his eardrums would burst. What is there to be afraid of in this? Seung-pyo frowned, not out of fear, but due to the unpleasantness of the noise, and looked to his side.

Ryu Jae-min had his eyes wide open and was frozen much stiffer than he had been before entering. To be heard over the noise, Seung-pyo raised his voice and shouted.

“Hey! Are you okay?!”

Only then did Jae-min look back at Seung-pyo. It felt like the first time they had properly made eye contact today. In the darkness, Jae-min nodded hurriedly. Seung-pyo shouted once more.

“Really?”

“Yeah!”

Jae-min answered with a shout as well. In the meantime, the other children had already moved further ahead. Seung-pyo and Jae-min quickly followed them.

Designed with the setting of a closed hospital sealed by a curse, the interior of the ghost world was decorated to be eerie in every detail. Tiles smeared with blood-red paint, walls covered in handprints, beds with corpses lying on them, frames with creepy paintings, various human models, and even minor props like curtains hanging from the walls or plastic sheets used to divide sections. Not a single item was placed carelessly.

The children, who had shown intense reactions from the moment they entered, were preoccupied with doing their absolute best to be terrified throughout the walk. At first, Seung-pyo was bewildered that his friends were so scared of trivial tricks, but he soon realized that they weren’t necessarily terrified, but were engaging in a collective behavior similar to screaming to hype things up at a concert.

However, the reputation of the ghost world, rumored to be the scariest among all horror attractions in the country, was only just beginning. A boy walking ahead suddenly let out a genuine “Gwaaaah!” and stumbled backward. Because of this, the children standing behind him were all pushed back in confusion.

“Keep moving forward!”

It was useless even as Seung-pyo braced himself with strength and shouted from the back. By the time zombie-like figures began popping up from the floor that had seemed flat, the children’s screams, which had been mixed with amusement, began to turn urgent and sharp.

Drawers of wardrobes that they thought were just decorations flew open, cold wind suddenly blasted toward their faces, flat walls suddenly flipped to reveal gruesome corpses, and what they thought were mannequins sitting in wheelchairs suddenly stood up—a series of events followed one after another without pause.

By the time they reached the middle of the attraction, the children’s screams had turned into heartfelt wails, and eventually, one person deviated from the path and bolted in the wrong direction. The panicked group chased after the fleeing boy.

“Hey! Where are you going?”

“I can’t do this! Ack, I can’t go! I give up!”

The children were aware of the rumors that people often gave up on finishing the course because they couldn’t endure the extreme terror. But to think someone from their own group would actually do it… Everyone looked as if they couldn’t accept it as they called the deserter back.

“Seriously, how embarrassing! Get back here before we leave you behind!”

“Ugh, damn it…”

The boy who had fled eventually trudged back to the group. He was even sniffing, as if he had shed some tears.

Seung-pyo had never been intimidated by ghost stories or urban legends, but he was starting to get a bit tired of the devices popping out from unexpected places to startle people. No matter how fearless one is, it’s impossible to withstand someone intentionally trying to scare you. To put it in gaming terms, it wasn’t a critical hit, but it felt like his HP had been chipped away by several small attacks.

Taking advantage of the lull in progress caused by the unexpected situation, he glanced sideways and saw that Ryu Jae-min was still standing close beside him. It was hard to tell from his stiff expression whether he was scared or not, but looking closer, he discovered one difference from before. Ryu Jae-min had his eyes tightly shut.

Why are his eyes closed? Is it because he’s scared? Without realizing it, Seung-pyo let out a small smirk and stealthily raised his arm. With his large hand, he gave Jae-min’s back a light, sudden slap.

“Huk…!”

Jae-min snapped his eyes open and let out a sound somewhere between a gasp and a scream. Seeing his shoulders tense up and tremble, it was clear he was properly terrified.

“Did I scare you?”

As Seung-pyo chuckled, Jae-min, realizing he had been pranked, shot him a cold glare. Faced with a gaze more piercing than the ghosts of the ghost world, Seung-pyo quickly cleared his throat and looked away. What a joke, the guy who looks most like a ghost is afraid of ghosts.

“Let’s hurry. At this rate, the people who entered after us will overtake us.”

Somehow, they had ended up taking a brief breather. The children, who had been chased by terror while screaming and losing their reason, regained their composure and opened their eyes wide to finish the remaining half of the path.

However, that resolve crumbled within a few steps. The ghost world was designed to make people feel terror more rapidly and intensely as they neared the end. Just as a zombie hanging upside down from the ceiling swept over their heads like a trapeze artist, hands reaching out from between iron bars lunged to grab the passersby.

The children began screaming with sobbing wails again, charging forward as if they themselves had become zombies, solely for the sake of a swift escape. Seung-pyo also quickened his pace to match the other children.

Finally, the exit began to appear at the end of the seemingly endless path of horror. The children’s screams gradually transitioned into cheers.

As they pushed open the blood-stained door, the bright May sunshine greeted the challengers as if by magic. The memory of the terrifying space they had been trapped in instantly blurred like a short nightmare.

“Wow, it’s over! It wasn’t as scary as I thought?”

“I think I could go in one more time.”

Despite trembling as if they were about to wet themselves, the moment they stepped outside, they were all busy boasting that it was more boring than expected.

Only the guy who had tried to desert halfway through looked awkward, pretending to look at his phone without joining the conversation. Seung-pyo was the only one who seemed unimpressed from start to finish.

“Where did Ryu Jae-min go?”

Seung-pyo, who came out last, asked while looking around at the chattering children.

There had been eight of them when they entered, but there were only seven, including himself, standing in front of the exit. In a situation that felt like a ghost story itself, the children blinked at each other.

“Did he come out first and go to the restroom?”

“But Ryu Jae-min was at the very back. Oh Seung, didn’t you see him?”

Seung-pyo frowned. He was definitely beside him until the moment he slapped his back to surprise him, but after that, the children had been screaming so crazily and moving so fast that Seung-pyo had just gone straight without looking around. He naturally assumed Ryu Jae-min was following.

“He must have fallen behind. He’ll come if we wait.”

It’s common for one or two people to arrive late when a group travels the same path. The children were nonchalant, but Seung-pyo, without smoothing his furrowed brow, whipped around. He flung open the closed exit door again and told the children.

“I’m going back in for a bit.”

“Huh? Then you should tell the staff…”

“You guys tell them for me!”

And so, Seung-pyo stepped back into the ghost world.

Despite the commotion of the group, Seung-pyo had only been momentarily startled from beginning to end; he wasn’t scared at all. However, entering the gloomy interior alone was more nerve-wracking than when they were moving together, screaming and shrieking.

“Ryu Jae-min!”

Seung-pyo shouted Jae-min’s name. As he began walking backward while looking around, a small crack appeared in the ghost world, a space that had been filled only with desperate horror and terror.

He saw a zombie, who had been lying on an old hospital bed fully prepared to scare people, hesitating and missing the timing on whether to get up or not. Seung-pyo gave a small bow.

“I’m here to find a friend. Sorry.”

Instead of answering aloud, the zombie gave a quiet nod.

Since they had been together until the middle, the point where he got lost shouldn’t be too far from the exit, but it was so dark that it was hard to gauge where he was. I should have grabbed a flashlight.

“Ryu Jae-min! Hey, Ryu Jae-min!”

“Excuse me.”

Seung-pyo, who had been diligently calling Jae-min’s name, looked to his side. A woman wearing white clothes smeared with red stains whispered, pointing toward a corner.

“Your friend is over there.”

“Thank you.”

Seung-pyo bowed and hurried in the direction the woman pointed.

After walking a few steps, he looked into a secluded space. That dark and narrow spot was a blind spot within the ghost world. It didn’t seem to be an exit path for those who gave up or a resting area intentionally created by the designer, but rather something that happened by chance during the decoration of the interior. In that small surplus space, none of the terrifying devices that filled the attraction were visible.

Ryu Jae-min was tucked away there, leaning his back against the wall, standing in a rigid posture like a child being punished. Seung-pyo let out an incredulous sigh and called him.

“Ryu Jae-min.”

Facing Seung-pyo, Jae-min’s expression looked dazed, as if he had encountered a real ghost. When he didn’t answer even after being spoken to, Seung-pyo took a step closer.

“Why are you acting like this here? Come on, hurry.”

The space was too narrow to hold two grown boys. The two had to stand facing each other, almost clinging together. Propping his elbow against the wall right next to Jae-min’s head, Seung-pyo tilted his head slightly and asked.

“What’s wrong? Are you scared?”

“No.”

“Then why are you doing this? Why aren’t you coming quickly?”

“…I, I was going to go together… but something suddenly popped out and I lost the others.”

It sounded like he had been swept along toward the exit, but got startled by a device and lost the group while flustered.

So if he had been hiding here, unable to move either way…

That means he is scared.

Instead of asking aloud, Seung-pyo bit the inside of his cheek. The way he stammered through his explanation, like an excuse, was so timid that it was unimaginable that he was the arrogant top student of the school, the psycho slut who used to look him straight in the eye and screw him over.

That Ryu Jae-min is this afraid of a prank like a haunted house? He felt like he would laugh if he didn’t hold back, but it wasn’t because he wanted to mock Ryu Jae-min’s unexpected side, but because of a strange, ticklish feeling in a corner of his heart.

“Alright, let’s go now.”

At Seung-pyo’s words, Jae-min only nodded with his gaze slightly lowered, avoiding eye contact. To be unable to exit a mere amusement park attraction on his own and make Oh Seung-pyo come find him—for the prideful Ryu Jae-min, this was a situation that must be deathly embarrassing.

The children were waiting outside. The ghosts, who had seen Seung-pyo go back to find his lost friend, were probably wondering when the two would reappear. If it took too long, a staff member might come in to find them. While thinking they had to leave quickly, Seung-pyo didn’t rush Jae-min or pull his arm.

Standing pressed tightly together in the narrow corner, Seung-pyo stealthily brought his lips to Ryu Jae-min’s forehead. As he slowly rubbed his lips against the boundary between the hair and the forehead, he felt Jae-min’s body tense up.

“Were you really scared? I should have looked after you better.”

Seung-pyo whispered. Inside the ghost world, eerie noises hummed, making human voices hard to hear, but because they were standing so close, his voice reached Jae-min clearly. Jae-min didn’t answer, only shifting his eyes. His expression was one of uncertainty as to whether Seung-pyo’s action was intentional or not.

The lips that had been touching stealthily, as if by mistake or accident, were now pressed with force, making a chu sound. When he felt a kiss that could no longer be dismissed as a misunderstanding, Jae-min finally met his gaze. His eyes were filled with an undisguised sense of bewilderment, as if asking what on earth he was doing here.

But Seung-pyo did not yield and this time kissed his lips with a chu. And once more, chu. Jae-min’s lips parted slightly. As Seung-pyo pushed his tongue through that gap without hesitation, Jae-min opened his mouth without resistance, as if by habit, despite his wide, surprised eyes.

Seung-pyo, who had become quite proficient at kissing, instantly swept through the heated mucous membranes and the roof of the mouth deep inside. Although his body was frozen like a stone, the inside of his mouth was soft as always, and perhaps because the state of being startled and tense was similar to being aroused, his body temperature seemed hotter than usual.

“Hng, ugh…”

While it was so dark that they could only vaguely see each other’s forms, the sobbing moans alone stimulated the ears vividly. Before he knew it, Jae-min’s hand was also wrapping around and pressing into Seung-pyo’s back.

Thump-thump, Seung-pyo’s heart, which hadn’t budged in front of the fake ghosts, responded violently to Ryu Jae-min’s small voice. Finding himself absurd, Seung-pyo bit Jae-min’s lower lip a bit hard and sucked it. He hugged the body that flinched within his arms.

After finishing the kiss, which felt as short as a blink, and dropping his head, Jae-min was looking at Seung-pyo without even thinking of closing his mouth. At times like this, I should suck on his tongue. Seung-pyo clenched his teeth, suppressing the impulse, and brought his lips to Ryu Jae-min’s ear.

“You’re not scared anymore, right?”

“…Yeah.”

“We can’t do more here. Let’s get out quickly.”

As he whispered and draped his arm over Jae-min’s shoulder, Jae-min began to follow obediently. Seung-pyo covered Jae-min’s eyes with his palm.

“If you’re scared, close your eyes. I’ll look for us.”

“I’m fine.”

“Oh, you’ve got some spirit back?”

But even while saying he was fine, Jae-min didn’t bother to shake off Seung-pyo’s hand covering his eyes. With his shoulder wrapped by Seung-pyo and his eyes covered by his palm, Jae-min moved forward, almost entrusting himself entirely to Oh Seung-pyo.

The two walked side by side in silence for a while and finally reached the exit. Was the way here this short? Feeling a sense of lingering regret, Seung-pyo lowered the arm that had been around Ryu Jae-min’s shoulder, removed his hand from his face, took a deep breath, and opened the door.

“Ryu Jae-min!”

“You guys took so long we were seriously about to call a staff member.”

The children, who had been waiting while sitting on benches and the floor, jumped up to greet them.

Ryu Jae-min, who had been shrunken in fear, immediately became perfectly normal the moment he stepped outside. The way he glanced at Seung-pyo uncomfortably suggested he was worried Seung-pyo would blab about what happened inside. Seung-pyo let out a snort so quiet that no one could hear.

What does he take me for?

They had kissed enough and had even shared masturbation videos with each other, yet there was still this lack of trust? Seung-pyo’s pride was hurt, but he had to remain composed in times like this.

“I think the path got a bit tangled inside. A part-timer dressed as a ghost told me where to go.”

“Whoa, really? I heard some people actually talk to the ghosts in places like this, and that was you.”

The group, having gained an exotic experience to talk about, was simply delighted. Now that their friend had returned, it was time to move toward the next course.

“Let’s ride Water Splash this time! I think we can ride this and one more, have lunch, and then ride Extrain.”

The children had already waited outside for about ten minutes. Unlike the two who had just escaped the ghost world, they were fully recharged.

Jae-min smiled awkwardly and waved his hand.

“You guys go ahead and ride. I’m thirsty, so I’ll rest a bit.”

“Really? You’re not riding?”

“I’ll follow soon. Don’t worry about me and just ride. You guys spent a lot of time waiting for me.”

“But still…”

The children hesitated, torn between the reason that they couldn’t heartlessly move on and leave one person behind, and the desire to use their time at neverland—which they didn’t know when they’d visit again—to the fullest. The one who ended that deliberation was Oh Seung-pyo.

“I’ll stay with him and then go. You guys go first.”

“Huh, really?”

“I don’t really like Water Splash anyway. I don’t want my clothes to get wet.”

“The weather is great, so they’ll dry quickly.”

“Just ride among yourselves.”

At Seung-pyo’s words, the children nodded, seeming relieved. The six children waved and drifted away, as if they had never hesitated for a moment.

“Call me later!”

“I will.”

Once the children had all scurried off, only Seung-pyo and Jae-min remained on the outdoor bench. After a brief, awkward silence, Seung-pyo plopped down on the bench, leaned back against the rest, and asked.

“What should we do now?”

Jae-min answered after lightly kicking a small pebble rolling at his feet.

“I’m a bit tired. I just want to look at some animals or plants.”

“You don’t want to ride any attractions?”

“No. Not right now.”

Seung-pyo grinned. It was the first real conversation he’d had with Ryu Jae-min in a long time.

Since seeing the pandas had been the main goal of the day, Jae-min’s desire to look at animals suited Seung-pyo perfectly. The problem was that there was still some waiting time before the Panda House opened.

What would be a suitable sight for Ryu Jae-min, who must have exhausted all his energy trembling for so long in the haunted house? Seung-pyo soon found the answer.

“Then follow me.”

“Where are we going?”

“Just come.”

Without further explanation, Seung-pyo strode ahead and then looked back. Instead of following obediently, Jae-min was merely staring at him with a suspicious look on his face.

“I’m leaving you behind, okay?”

Normally, these words wouldn’t have been a threat, but having just been rescued from the haunted house, Ryu Jae-min’s heart seemed to have turned soft and fragile. At a single word from Seung-pyo saying he’d leave him behind, he quickly hurried to his side.

Seung-pyo chuckled and continued walking, still without explanation. Ryu Jae-min, who at the start of the semester used to follow him around, wondering what they were going to do without even knowing where he was taking him, remained unchanged. Then again, only about two months had passed since then, which wasn’t long enough for a person to change.

On that day at the start of the semester, he had taken Ryu Jae-min to an arcade. To think it was his first time at an arcade and his first time at a karaoke room. Oh Seung-pyo himself had never met a specimen like this before. And Oh Seung-pyo had kissed that specimen…

‘I’ve been thinking about this every single day lately.’

Seung-pyo gave a small cough and deliberately looked at a distant mountain instead of Ryu Jae-min. Ever since they started kissing, he felt like he’d become Pavlov’s dog, reflexively thinking about kissing and touching Jae-min whenever he saw his face.

It wasn’t like he intended to do that from the start in the ghost world… After spending about a week ignoring each other without a word, suddenly thrusting his lips forward was, even by his own admission, a sudden acceleration. However, he took pride in the fact that it was the best choice. Rather than standing in a dark corner trying to soothe him with words he wouldn’t even listen to, or forcibly dragging out a guy hiding in fear, solving it with a single kiss was far more efficient.

But wasn’t he a human, not a lab dog? He felt he should slowly fix the habit of thinking about kissing every time he saw Ryu Jae-min.

They arrived at their destination after a short walk. Seung-pyo pointed confidently at the fence in front of them.

“Looks fun, right?”

Jae-min looked at the scenery before him with a somewhat blank expression.

Inside a transparent fence that barely reached their knees, small guinea pigs and rabbits of various fur colors were huddled together, digging into the ground. In a wire cage next to them, parrots with beautiful feathers flew around, and in a separate, spacious section, a few capybaras were wandering slowly, their eyes almost closed.

Most of the people viewing the animals were young children who looked to be about five or six years old and the guardians who had come with them. There were no students from Ilyang Boys’ High School, who likely made up the largest percentage of Neverland’s visitors today. It was only natural, as boys who had planned to ride as many attractions as possible within a limited time would have little interest in such a small, peaceful space.

Although he had said he wanted to look at animals or plants, he hadn’t meant a toddler’s zoo like this. Jae-min stared at Seung-pyo with a deflated face.

“Are you mocking me?”

But Seung-pyo widened his eyes as if he didn’t know what he was talking about.

“It’s so much fun. You don’t have the energy to play anyway since you were so scared in the ghost world. Do you know why this place is great? You can feed them and touch them.”

Seung-pyo bought a feeding experience ticket, got the feed, and poured it all into a plastic ladle with a long handle. As he pushed the hollow ladle into the enclosure, several guinea pigs rushed in and began eating busily.

Seung-pyo turned to Jae-min with a smile and a smug expression.

“See that? You want to try too, don’t you?”

Above the triumphant Oh Seung-pyo’s head, the cloth lesser panda ears stood out. Since they weren’t real ears, they couldn’t move on their own, but because Oh Seung-pyo shook his head from side to side, it created an optical illusion as if they were twitching.

He hadn’t noticed it because it was dark inside the ghost world, but seeing a huge guy wearing animal ears crouching in a place gathered with small animals made him look like a predator in disguise who had come to ambush his small animal friends. In a cute and peaceful landscape like a picture book or an animation background, he was undeniably the villain.

“Yeah. It is fun.”

When Jae-min answered with a chuckle, Seung-pyo stood up and pulled Jae-min’s hand.

“You try it too. I told you it’s fun.”

The speed at which Seung-pyo handed the feed to Jae-min’s hand was faster than the speed at which Jae-min could say to let go. Jae-min looked down at his hand with a reluctant gaze, then gave a small sigh, approached the enclosure, and slowly pushed the ladle in.

The guinea pigs buried their small heads in the feed Jae-min gave them just as fairly. Seung-pyo didn’t miss the way a shy joy slowly spread across Jae-min’s face, which had been indifferent at first. Like a salesman persuading a customer who was debating whether to buy something, he clung to Jae-min and explained how to enjoy the zoo.

“You can’t just feed them. There are some you can touch too. Over there, the parrots and the capybaras.”

“You really like animals.”

“Doesn’t everyone like these kinds of things? They’re cute.”

Seung-pyo leaped over the fence with his long legs and entered the enclosure. The sight of a large male high school student squeezing in between children who looked like they hadn’t even started elementary school yet looked like a scene of ecological destruction. Jae-min watched to see what he was trying to do.

“Look at this. They’re so gentle that they stay still even if you touch them like this.”

The invasive species that had breached the zoo crouched beside a capybara and stroked its back. Just as he had guaranteed, the gentle beast remained quiet with its eyes half-closed, regardless of whether a human was touching it or not. Seung-pyo giggled and looked back and forth between the capybara and Jae-min.

“This guy looks a bit like you. All prim and proper.”

“How do we look alike? It’s ugly.”

As they were exchanging jabs, a zookeeper passing by smiled and spoke to Jae-min.

“Ugly? Don’t you think the capybara is cute?”

“Huh? Oh, no. I didn’t mean it’s actually ugly, I was just joking…”

“You can try holding the rabbit. Would you like to?”

Regardless of Jae-min’s stuttering, flustered reaction, the zookeeper kindly offered. As he nodded awkwardly, the keeper held a rabbit and handed it over to Jae-min’s arms. He had felt a bit embarrassed standing there in his school uniform in a place swarming with children, but standing with the zookeeper gave him a sense of justification, making him feel more confident.

Jae-min looked down quietly at the rabbit, which had white fur with brown spotted patterns. The small animal’s body temperature was warm, and it was weaker and softer than he thought, so he couldn’t hug it tightly. He became cautious, feeling as if it might break if he applied even a little pressure to his arms. Looking at the rabbit, which seemed comfortable and stayed quietly in his arms, he felt himself becoming drowsy along with it.

“Feels good, right?”

While he was staring blankly at the rabbit, a smug voice reached him as if to say, ‘See?’ Jae-min, standing by the rabbit enclosure, and Seung-pyo, standing inside the capybara enclosure, locked eyes. Jae-min shrugged and put the rabbit down. Seung-pyo leaped back over the fence and approached.

“Why are you putting it down already?”

“If I hold it for too long, they’ll hate it.”

“I don’t think you held it for that long.”

Seung-pyo tilted his head and stepped closer to Jae-min.

Even if his facial expressions didn’t change much, he was a guy whose emotions could be roughly read. He seemed to be inwardly enjoying himself while holding the rabbit, but now he looked somewhat bittersweet. Was it because the fear from the ghost house hadn’t completely worn off yet?

“Why did you go in if you’re that scared of the haunted house? You should have said you wouldn’t go.”

“I didn’t know either. That I was scared of things like that.”

“Why? Have you never been to one?”

“I went exactly once around the time I was in kindergarten… I wasn’t scared then. My father carried me in his arms.”

At the unexpected answer, Seung-pyo quirked one eyebrow as if it were fascinating.

“I heard your father is rumored to be very strict, but I guess he’s actually affectionate.”

“He was when I was young.”

Jae-min looked for a moment at a young child laughing while playing with the animals and the family preoccupied with taking photos of the child, then turned his head to Seung-pyo.

“What else do you want to do?”

“We have to see the pandas too. We just stopped here for a bit before seeing them.”

“Then let’s go see the pandas.”

It seemed Jae-min had recharged the energy that had been sucked away by the ghosts by petting the small, cozy animals. He knew it would be like this. Satisfied with the excellent route he had planned, Seung-pyo turned his direction toward the Panda House.

* * *

The doors to the Panda House were now wide open. Because the number of visitors allowed in at once was limited, the inside was quiet.

There were two pandas in total; one was climbed up a tree, draped over a branch like laundry, sleeping with its plump rear sticking out. The other was sitting on the ground eating bamboo. Seung-pyo giggled and took photos diligently.

“Isn’t the sleeping posture fucking hilarious? Why is it sleeping so uncomfortably?”

Jae-min had a peculiar expression, as if he found Seung-pyo more interesting than the pandas.

“Why do you like pandas so much?”

“Because they’re cute. They’re cute and funny. You know pandas only eat bamboo, right? They’re huge, but since they only eat bamboo, which has no nutritional value, they have to spend 10 hours a day just eating. If they lack nutrition, they could just eat something other than bamboo. But they only eat bamboo for 10 hours.”

“Why do they do that?”

“There are several hypotheses, so it’s not certain, but they say a panda’s digestive system is the same as a carnivore’s. Which means they were carnivores at first. The most common theory now is that they lived eating meat, but as it became hard to find food due to climate change, they evolved that way to avoid competition. If they only eat bamboo, they won’t have to fight other animals for food. Isn’t that amazing?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Jae-min nodded slightly and spoke first before Seung-pyo could continue the panda story.

“I thought nature was unconditionally a world of the law of the jungle where they compete fiercely, but I guess it’s not always like that.”

“Humans are the ones who live too exhaustingly.”

It was a conversation that seemed to completely forget that they themselves were the parties who fought over grades every time and had made two bets in a short period.

Seung-pyo, who had been passionately explaining about pandas, remembered something and took off his headband. Jae-min, who was leaning on the railing watching the pandas, was startled and looked back when Seung-pyo suddenly stood close beside him.

“What? What is it?”

“I’ll take a photo for you, try this on.”

“No thanks. I’m not taking one.”

“Why? You came to see pandas, you should at least take one commemorative photo. It’s not like this guy lives here forever. I heard it’s going back to China next year.”

While they were talking, Seung-pyo had already placed the headband on Jae-min’s head. Jae-min tried to take it off immediately, but Seung-pyo didn’t let go and urged him.

“Just stay still for a second. You can take it off right after the photo.”

“Then I’ll just take one without this.”

“You really don’t know how to have fun. Hey, this is how everyone plays when they come to an amusement park. Didn’t you see all the kids wearing one earlier? Why are you being such a loser?”

“Who’s a loser, you son of a bitch.”

As Seung-pyo expected, those words were effective. Jae-min, who had been about to rip off the headband, grumbled but stopped resisting and dropped his hands. Since he was a born model student who had never been to an arcade or a karaoke room despite being ranked first in the whole school, the guess that he would be weak to the words ‘don’t know how to have fun’ was correct.

Stepping back a few paces to photograph the now-tame Jae-min, Seung-pyo looked back and forth between the Jae-min on the phone screen and the real Jae-min standing across from him. The lesser panda headband seemed to suit Ryu Jae-min better than it did him.

‘…He’s kind of cute?’

As expected, the power of animals is strong. Just by adding two ears, it made him think this while looking at Ryu Jae-min. A guy who had absolutely no cute side, even if he tried to find one by force. In the first place, the reason he bought the headband was to find an opportunity to put it on his head and make fun of how ridiculous he looked, but it suited him so well that it wasn’t ridiculous at all.

“If you’re going to take it, take it quickly.”

When he just measured the distance without pressing the shutter, Jae-min urged him. Seung-pyo took one shot of the guy standing sullenly and shook his phone.

“I’ll send the photo via DM later.”

“Do you want me to take one of you too?”

“Of course.”

“Take this back now.”

Jae-min quickly took off the headband and returned it to Seung-pyo, then took one shot of Seung-pyo posing as if he were eating bamboo.

The Panda House was as enjoyable as he had anticipated, but they couldn’t watch pandas that did nothing but sleep and eat bamboo indefinitely. The two began to search for their next route. As they exited, Jae-min took out his phone.

“Let’s contact the kids now.”

“No.”

“When are you going to? They might be waiting.”

“Waiting? They’re probably too busy playing. The rule is to leave the stragglers behind, so just know that I only went to find you because it’s you.”

“Yeah, keep repeating the same story over and over, milk it a hundred times.”

“Yeah. I will.”

Jae-min’s expression darkened, perhaps feeling that he had been caught in a weakness again. However, Seung-pyo was just responding haphazardly because his attention was entirely focused elsewhere.

Seung-pyo glanced at Jae-min’s profile as he carefully examined the overall map of the amusement park.

‘I want to put the headband on him and kiss him.’

It seemed that fixing the habit of thinking about kissing whenever he saw Ryu Jae-min was a lost cause for today. It couldn’t be helped. Since nothing happens overnight, he’d just start tomorrow.

Jae-min, who had no way of knowing what Seung-pyo was thinking while looking at him, asked for his opinion.

“Is there anywhere else you want to go?”

That was exactly the problem. Where would be a good place to go? Ever since he heard the news about the field trip, Seung-pyo had been looking forward to a kiss at Neverland. But now that he was actually here, finding a suitable place was like plucking a star from the sky.

The amusement park, which had started to get crowded as the number of visitors increased compared to the morning, was full of people in every corner, and among them, the Ilyang Boys’ High School students were the most numerous. If they were caught rubbing lips by people from the same school, his peaceful school life would be over. Was there really no place where they could be alone, away from others’ eyes?

As Seung-pyo looked around sharply, a structure he hadn’t noticed until now caught his eye. It was an attraction that had been erased from his mind despite standing there like a giant, simply because he had no intention of riding it.

“Want to ride the Ferris wheel?”

Seung-pyo pointed to an old attraction that did nothing more than rotate slowly along a large circular trajectory—a boring ride that took a long time to complete, which no teenage boy visiting an amusement park with friends would ever be interested in. If it weren’t for Ryu Jae-min, he would never have suggested riding it, even as a joke.

Jae-min also looked up at the Ferris wheel, which stood tall like a high-rise building, and spoke with a puzzled expression.

“I don’t mind, but you’re go… .”

“Hmm?”

Jae-min stopped mid-sentence and closed his mouth.

“Nothing.”

“If you’re okay with it, let’s ride that. Since we looked at the zoo, let’s rest in there for a bit, and then contact the kids.”

Having reached a quick agreement, the two walked for much longer than expected. The giant Ferris wheel was further away than the distance he had estimated with the naked eye.

The Ferris wheel was an old attraction that could be called a symbol of an amusement park, but its number of users had decreased a lot lately, pushed aside by all sorts of spectacular new rides. In the queue in front of the Ferris wheel, there were only a few young couples and families with children; as Oh Seung-pyo expected, the guys in the same school uniform were completely absent.

“…We’re the only kids who came to ride this.”

Jae-min whispered in a low voice, as if he hadn’t predicted this situation. He seemed a bit flustered.

Seung-pyo almost laughed out loud. He had wondered why Jae-min had nodded so readily without a single complaint when he suggested riding the ferris wheel; it seemed Jae-min was completely unaware that kids their age didn’t usually ride them.

When he didn’t answer, Jae-min, thinking he hadn’t heard, poked Seung-pyo in the waist.

“The only people here to ride this are couples.”

“If it bothers you, just pretend to be a couple with me.”

“You came here just to mess with me, didn’t you? Hey, I’m not riding this.”

Just as Jae-min was about to step out of line, the couple standing directly in front of them boarded a vacant ferris wheel seat that had just arrived. Then, the door of a gondola that had skipped about two slots swung open.

“Next passengers, please board. Have a happy time.”

The attendant waved and kindly guided Seung-pyo and Jae-min into the empty gondola. Jae-min, who had been on the verge of abandoning the line and leaving Seung-pyo behind, couldn’t bring himself to brush off the attendant’s sweet smile and kind gesture; he was practically pushed into the gondola and flopped down onto the seat.

“I thought you said you weren’t riding?”

Seung-pyo, sitting opposite him, chuckled. Jae-min was staring out the window with a drained expression.

“As long as nobody saw.”

“Who even cares about others in a place like this? Everyone’s too busy having fun.”

The gondola began to rise slowly into the air. Seung-pyo, who had also been looking out the window like Jae-min, suddenly felt anxious and pulled out his phone.

“How many meters is this?”

The height of the neverland ferris wheel. The answer appeared immediately upon searching a portal site.

“Wow, 70 meters…”

As Seung-pyo muttered in a sigh, Jae-min tilted his head and asked.

“Why? Do you hate high places?”

“I don’t particularly like them, but it’s fine. We’ll be going down soon anyway.”

“This moves slowly, so I don’t think we’ll be going down soon.”

Jae-min’s point was correct. Unlike rides like roller coasters or Gyro Drops that ascend briefly and then plummet instantly, the ferris wheel was ascending as slowly as a turtle. Furthermore, while the speed of a roller coaster is so fast that there’s no time to look at the scenery to tell if it’s high or low, a ferris wheel was literally a ‘viewing’ wheel. This meant that the most important function of this moving observatory was to look out and enjoy the scenery.

Seung-pyo frowned slightly and glanced out the window again. He originally had a mild fear of heights and tended to avoid high places. However, he didn’t want to look like such a coward in front of his friends, and since his curiosity to enjoy the thrill often overcame his fear, he frequently closed his eyes and braved exciting rides like roller coasters.

But now, he simply had to stare down from a high place indefinitely. For Oh Seung-pyo, a place like this was far more poisonous than a ride that ascended and descended quickly.

‘I just have to not look out the window, right?’

Anyway, since it wasn’t a ride with any movement other than going up, if he just focused on kissing Ryu Jae-min before they got any higher, he wouldn’t have time to be scared. To do that, he had to move quickly.

“Ryu Jae-min.”

“Hmm?”

“Let’s finish what we were doing earlier.”

“Doing what?”

“What we were doing in the ghost world.”

Jae-min blinked a couple of times, and as if finally understanding Seung-pyo’s words, his mouth opened slightly in surprise. He looked around and frowned as if it were absurd.

“The front, back, and sides are all glass windows; how can we do it here? Everyone below will be able to see.”

“They can’t see.”

“Look over there. There are kids from our school. From this distance, you can see if you look up.”

“Who would bother looking up here? Those kids are just passing by.”

“Anyway, not here.”

“I got on this specifically to kiss you.”

“What is he talking about, just doing whatever he wants. He didn’t even tell me in advance.”

To think that the little whore who opened his lips so easily anywhere would actually refuse a kiss here. Seung-pyo’s expression turned serious at this unexpected turn of events. Meanwhile, the ferris wheel continued to go higher and higher, already quite far from the ground.

Seung-pyo quickly searched again. How long does it take for the neverland ferris wheel to make one full rotation?

“20 minutes.”

“What is?”

The time he had to endure in the ferris wheel was a whopping 20 minutes. If he couldn’t even kiss Ryu Jae-min, Seung-pyo would have to fight his fear of heights alone for that entire time for no reason.

If he honestly confessed that he had a fear of heights and said he felt he wouldn’t be scared if he kissed him, how would Ryu Jae-min react?

There were three likely reactions. First, he would find it amusing to see Oh Seung-pyo trembling in fear and give him a kiss as if giving alms. Second, he would look down on Oh Seung-pyo for being afraid of such a thing and intentionally move violently to shake the gondola. Third, he wouldn’t say anything but would think he was more cowardly than he looked and either refuse to kiss him or do it reluctantly.

Whichever it was…

‘It’s embarrassing.’

It had been enjoyable to kiss Ryu Jae-min when he was frozen in fear in the ghost world, but Seung-pyo didn’t want to be in the opposite position.

If Ryu Jae-min felt the same way looking at him as he had felt looking at a terrified Ryu Jae-min… for some reason, he felt a shrinking, tingling sense of shame deep in his chest. It was a different kind of emotion from the pleasant tingling he had felt when he encountered Ryu Jae-min in a corner of the haunted house.

Meanwhile, the ferris wheel soared slowly but without stopping. Now the ground was distantly far away. Most of the other rides had fallen below eye level, and people looked like tiny moving miniatures.

“Oh Seung-pyo.”

Then, Ryu Jae-min called his name. Since Seung-pyo was pouring all his strength into pretending everything was fine, he answered curtly.

“What.”

“You can do it now.”

Seung-pyo lifted his slightly bowed head to face Jae-min. Ryu Jae-min, who couldn’t even open his eyes properly in the haunted house, had the same detached expression as usual, as if he weren’t afraid of heights at all. He continued.

“Since we’ve come up this high, there’s no way anyone outside can see.”

At those words, Seung-pyo glanced out the window, which he had been consciously avoiding. Fuck, Seung-pyo almost cursed out loud but barely managed to endure it.

For a moment, he felt every hair on his body stand on end. A chill ran down his spine, and he broke into a cold sweat. The ferris wheel had risen much higher than it felt.

I must be crazy, why did I suggest riding this? Regret washed over him like a wave. Since he had never ridden a ferris wheel, he hadn’t imagined it would be this scary. The options Seung-pyo could choose were now completely exhausted.

“Forget it. I’m not doing it.”

“…Why?”

“Do you think I have no pride? Like I’d just jump on you because the guy who said no changed his mind.”

At the grumpy reply, Jae-min seemed awkward, and without adding much more, he turned his head toward the window.

“If you don’t want to, then don’t.”

The atmosphere inside the narrow gondola sank coldly. However, Seung-pyo had no room left to care about the tension surrounding them. Since they seemed to have risen about halfway, ten minutes must have passed. He hoped the remaining ten minutes would fly by. He wanted to set foot on the ground even one second sooner.

Of course, he wanted to kiss Ryu Jae-min, but it was impossible right now. For starters, Seung-pyo couldn’t even stand up from his seat and cross over to Jae-min’s. Completely frozen in place, keeping his posture fixed and looking down at his feet instead of out the open windows was the only way to keep Ryu Jae-min from finding out he was terrified.

‘…I should have told Ryu Jae-min to come over here.’

Realizing the answer too late, he bit the inside of his lip. Normally, his brain wouldn’t glitch like this, but when a person is this scared, even a simple solution seems blocked from his mind.

He couldn’t change his tune and tell him to kiss him or come over here after criticizing the act of jumping on someone who changed their mind as being prideless. He had shot himself in the foot. Seung-pyo let out a small sigh.

“It’s really high…”

It seemed Jae-min had turned away because his feelings were hurt by Seung-pyo’s rebuke, but while looking out the window, he seemed to have forgotten his displeasure and muttered a self-admiring comment. The gondola they were in had reached near the top of the ferris wheel structure.

Screech… Clunk!

That was when a strange sound occurred. The gondola shook slightly, and the slow movement they had been feeling suddenly stopped. Without anyone leading, both of them looked around. Seung-pyo’s voice grew loud without him realizing it.

“What? Did it stop?”

“Is it supposed to do this in the middle?”

“I don’t think so…”

Seung-pyo swallowed hard. He was becoming increasingly anxious. Fearing it might be a dangerous situation, he stayed seated, unable to move recklessly, when an announcement soon played.

[To everyone riding the neverland ferris wheel, we are very sorry. There is currently a temporary problem with the power system, and immediate repairs have begun. Please wait a moment and it will return to normal operation soon, so please stay calm and do not move.]

At the attendant’s voice, Jae-min let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness. It doesn’t seem like a major breakdown.”

As he said, it was a blessing in disguise. However, Seung-pyo was becoming anxious so rapidly that he couldn’t agree that it was a blessing.

Wait a moment, for how long? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? The only reason he had been acting composed was the expectation that they would descend soon. To be told to hang indefinitely in the high air just as the car carrying them had reached the very peak was madness.

“Haa…”

A sigh escaped him. It was now hard to even keep his eyes open, so this time, Seung-pyo closed his eyes just as Ryu Jae-min had done in the ghost world. He no longer had the energy to care how Jae-min viewed him.

After a brief silence, Jae-min’s voice was heard.

“Are you scared?”

Seung-pyo exercised his right to remain silent. It must have been obvious to Ryu Jae-min, but he didn’t want to admit it. When he didn’t answer, Jae-min seemed to hesitate, then spoke first again.

“You have a fear of heights.”

His closed eyes snapped open.

It was true, but Seung-pyo had never told Jae-min that he was afraid of high places, nor had they ever gone up to a high place together. So how did this guy know?

“How do you know that?”

“I heard you talking with the other kids in the classroom. That’s why it was a bit strange when you suggested the ferris wheel… but since you suggested it first, I thought you were okay.”

He knew?

It was a moment where all the effort he’d put into pretending to be fine felt futile. The strength drained from his shoulders. Seung-pyo stopped holding back, let out a loud sigh, and covered his face with both hands.

“I’ve never ridden a ferris wheel, so I didn’t know it would be this scary…”

“How could you not know? It’s this high just by looking at it.”

“And I thought if I rode this, I’d get to kiss you right away!”

He heard Jae-min let out a scoff, making no effort to hide his disbelief. Though he was frustrated, Seung-pyo, who had already exposed himself completely, closed his eyes tight and finished what he had to say.

“If I wasn’t going to do it, I wouldn’t have ridden it. Do you think I rode this because I liked it?”

“Who stopped you? I told you to do it earlier!”

“You should have done it before we got this high! I’m scared to death, how am I supposed to move!”

Could fear be lessened through venting? After spitting out all the words he’d been holding back, he felt somewhat less scared than before.

Jae-min said nothing more. Indeed, even Seung-pyo thought there weren’t many appropriate responses to such stubborn whining.

He’s probably thinking I’m ridiculous and pathetic. A person who can’t even move a few dozen centimeters from their seat because of a fear of heights was much funnier than a person who cowered in a corner because they were afraid of ghosts.

“Pfft.”

To think he would actually laugh.

The sound that suddenly came from opposite him was the seam of a laugh that had finally burst. Seung-pyo lowered the hands covering his face and confirmed the sight of Jae-min, who must have been laughing at him heartily.

Puhaha, as their eyes met, Jae-min no longer held back and laughed out loud. While Jae-min laughed for a long time, the expression on Seung-pyo’s face, which had been staring at Jae-min with resentment, gradually saw the fear, embarrassment, and other unpleasant emotions erased.

It was the first time he had faced Ryu Jae-min laughing like this, so closely, so loudly, and directed only at him and no one else. He occasionally smiled brightly when he scored a goal or won during a basketball game, but even then, it was only when he was mixed in with other kids. Ryu Jae-min was the type of guy whose face would stiffen the moment he was in front of Seung-pyo, as if the joy of scoring and winning vanished.

And that guy, suddenly, here.

“Wha-what’s so funny.”

Not wanting to reveal that his heart had started pounding, Seung-pyo asked sullenly. Jae-min choked back his laughter and returned to a serious face as if he had never laughed.

“Then, since you’re scared, you should have told me to come to your seat. Why the hell are you snapping at me? I really thought I’d done something wrong.”

“I didn’t say anything wrong. Your attitude was annoying too.”

“Stop it. Always trying to win the argument.”

Ryu Jae-min clicked his tongue and suddenly stood up. Seung-pyo’s eyes widened and he gestured.

“Hey, sit down! They said not to move.”

“They probably meant don’t freak out and run wild.”

Jae-min hopped over and sat in the seat next to Seung-pyo. The interior of the gondola was narrow, and the plastic two-person seat wasn’t large. If two growing boys sat side by side, there was almost no gap.

Even after moving over, Jae-min remained silent. Seung-pyo was now staring entranced at Jae-min, who had come right beside him, rather than at the window or his feet. Jae-min also looked back at Seung-pyo and spoke.

“Not doing it?”

As if.

All the attention that had been directed outside the ferris wheel until a moment ago was instantly sucked into Ryu Jae-min. Once he stopped being conscious of the height, the fear faded like a lie.

Just as he was about to press his lips together, Seung-pyo paused. Jae-min blinked and asked.

“Why?”

“Wear this.”

“What is it? Why this?”

“I wore it earlier, so this time you wear it.”

Even in an urgent situation, Seung-pyo didn’t forget to take off the lesser panda headband and put it on Jae-min. Jae-min, who muttered, “When was ‘earlier’?” seemed to realize he was referring to the kiss in the ghost world and stammered in embarrassment.

While Jae-min was stammering, Seung-pyo didn’t wait and overlapped his lips onto Jae-min’s. Ryu Jae-min, who had approached first, opened his mouth more readily than ever to accept Seung-pyo’s lips. Before Seung-pyo could push his tongue in, Jae-min’s small piece of flesh crossed into Seung-pyo’s mouth first and licked the tip of his tongue.

He was unusually gentle for Ryu Jae-min. Was he trying to soothe him because he was afraid of heights? As he thought that, an excited feeling surged in Seung-pyo’s chest, rising so fiercely and quickly that it drove away the fear.

“Hng…”

When he suddenly tightened his arms around Jae-min, Jae-min made a slight sound as if he were breathless. Seung-pyo thickly entwined his tongue with Jae-min’s, which was tickling the inside of his mouth, and pulled it further in. As he slowly sucked, turning his head to change the angle, he felt Jae-min’s breathing become labored.

“Ha… hng.”

“Push your tongue out more…”

He likes having his tongue sucked, but the moment it happens, he keeps trying to pull away by tensing up. At Seung-pyo’s words, Jae-min finally relaxed his mouth.

Seung-pyo lightly bit the softly extended tongue and then caught it only with his lips, slowly sucking it. As the tips of their tongues rubbed together as if being crushed, Jae-min’s waist flinched.

By the time Jae-min had completely let down his guard and entrusted his lips and tongue to Seung-pyo, Seung-pyo pushed his tongue deep into Jae-min’s mouth and this time licked the roof of his mouth stickily. When the long tongue touched the soft, tender flesh between the roof of the mouth and the throat, Jae-min’s jaw and body trembled. The voice he let out was definitely more feverish.

“Ngh, mm, ah…”

“Huu… mmm.”

Ryu Jae-min seems to be enjoying it too.

The moans Jae-min let out as if holding them back always excited Seung-pyo, but today, that voice felt more viscous than usual. Seung-pyo forgot that this was a place about 70 meters above the ground and sank into the hot, thick sensations created by the kiss.

He pushed his tongue deep, swallowing the feverish moans rising from the throat, and pulled out several times whenever Ryu Jae-min trembled. After repeating the act of lightly biting and releasing the wet lips several more times, Jae-min was now breathing heavily, completely spent.

Before he knew it, Jae-min found himself leaning against the wall of the Ferris wheel, pushed back by Seung-pyo’s strength. Their posture, having sat side-by-side in the seats, had collapsed; they were now facing each other, with Seung-pyo leaning over Jae-min, who was practically lying diagonally.

Having finally released his lips, Seung-pyo lifted his face slightly and looked down at Jae-min. The version of him that had been so detached—even laughing out loud while Seung-pyo trembled in fear of the height—had vanished. Jae-min’s pale face was flushed red, his expression bordering on a pout, and he looked up with unfocused eyes. Atop his disheveled hair, the red panda ears he had put on earlier tilted slightly.

“You’re cute.”

Seung-pyo’s kissing didn’t end. As he showered kisses along Jae-min’s jawline, Jae-min flinched with every touch. By the time his lips reached beneath the ear and trailed down the neckline inside the collar, Jae-min trembled, gripping Seung-pyo’s shoulders.

“Ah, wait…”

“You’re not moving yet.”

“Ah—.”

As Seung-pyo grazed the white, soft skin with his teeth, Jae-min let out a long moan. Unlike the muffled whimpers he made during the kiss, this voice burst out suddenly. Seung-pyo felt his entire body grow hot and pressed his face close, almost burying it in the crook of Jae-min’s neck.

He swept over every inch where his lips could touch—the long line of the neck, near the collarbones, and around the shoulders—licking them with his tongue. He occasionally nipped with his teeth. After sucking lightly, he watched as blood pooled like a red bruise on the white skin, then kissed the spot again.

“Haa, hng… ngh…”

Jae-min’s hands fumbled across Seung-pyo’s back. His voice was beginning to sound like someone crying. However, when Seung-pyo checked his face out of concern, he wasn’t shedding tears; he was simply panting, his face more flushed than before.

Just as Seung-pyo was about to bury his face in that neck once more, Jae-min called out to stop him.

“Oh, Oh Seung-pyo…”

“Yeah…?”

“Are you still scared?”

At those words, Seung-pyo stared blankly at Jae-min before nodding. He had forgotten because of the kissing, but the question reminded him that they were currently 70 meters in the air.

“A little.”

At that, Jae-min swallowed hard and tightly gripped the buttons of his shirt. Even though the kissing had stopped, his face grew redder for some reason, and after a hesitant silence, he slowly spoke again.

“Right now… do you want to suck my nipples?”

The gondola, which had been filled with the sound of scattered, heavy breaths, suddenly fell silent.

Gulp. The sound of swallowing was far too loud in the silence. Seung-pyo, who had been acting as if he would devour Jae-min by biting and sucking every inch of skin exposed beyond the collar, froze stiffly the moment the invitation was extended, simply staring back at Jae-min.

Jae-min endured that frozen gaze for quite a while without looking away, but eventually, unable to bear the embarrassment, he averted his eyes and grumbled.

“If you don’t want to, then forget it.”

“When did I say I didn’t want to?”

Seung-pyo shot back immediately. Like a Ferris wheel that had been stopped, he finally finished his “internal repairs” and leaned his face toward Jae-min again.

He poured out kisses over Jae-min’s cheeks, lips, and neck. Jae-min, whose excitement hadn’t yet subsided, quickly shrugged his shoulders and shuddered lightly. Seung-pyo gave a quick, sucking kiss to Jae-min’s parted lips and whispered in a voice slightly cracked from the heat.

“Ryu Jae-min, say it one more time.”

“What?”

“What you just said.”

Panting heavily, Jae-min asked back with an uncertain expression.

“That you should forget it if you don’t want to?”

“Before that.”

“What…? The part about sucking your nipples?”

“Ha.”

Seung-pyo let out a short, ambiguous sigh and grit his teeth, then grabbed Jae-min’s hand, which had been resting on his chest, and pulled it down. Because Jae-min had been gripping the front of his shirt so tightly, the fabric was slightly wrinkled. The attire of the always-neat model student was on the verge of becoming a complete mess.

Seung-pyo quickly reached out and began unbuttoning from the top. However, he had never unbuttoned someone else’s clothes before, and his current state—a hazy, hurried mood where he couldn’t tell if it was excitement or overwhelm—hindered him. Because the small buttons were fastened securely, they kept slipping through his large hands. Seung-pyo grumbled to himself.

“I just want to rip it off.”

His impatient heart manifested in his actions, and he unconsciously applied too much force. This time, Jae-min grabbed his wrist.

“Don’t rip it. Wait.”

Seung-pyo stared intently as Jae-min pushed him back slightly and slowly undid the buttons of his own shirt.

Ryu Jae-min’s hands were large with long fingers. The backs of his hands were white and smooth, and his neat nails were clean, without a single hangnail or chip.

They were different from Oh Seung-pyo’s hands, which were rough-edged and slightly tanned, often scratched or scraped from outdoor activities like basketball. Just by looking at them, one could tell these were the hands of someone who did nothing but study quietly.

The nape of the neck visible through the collar was stained red in various places because Seung-pyo had been ravaging it, and there were bite marks here and there that would soon fade. Yet, Jae-min’s hands remained brazenly neat, as if they didn’t care about their owner’s internal state.

‘Always keep your appearance and conduct neat.’ That was the teaching of adults he had heard countless times since he started school as an eight-year-old, and the more ‘delinquent’ a student was, the more they tended to mess up their appearance as if fighting against that sermon.

Not wearing the uniform according to the rules, dyeing their hair, discarding required items, and wearing forbidden ones. Seung-pyo, too, sometimes found the fact that he had to do exactly as told irritating for no particular reason, and would intentionally make his attire look like a crooked, unfinished mess.

Looking at Jae-min now, Seung-pyo felt he vaguely understood why being disheveled was linked to rebellion. Because the person who always forces you to be neat believes they also have the right to undo and break that neatness. To deny such arrogance and delusion, one had to become disheveled first.

However, even the bold Ryu Jae-min, who had filmed his own lewd self and posted it on the internet to chat with perverts, didn’t seem like his usual self right now. His breath, which had been heavy for a while, showed no sign of calming down, and the fingertips that had finally undone one button were moving slowly, as if hesitating.

Watching this, Seung-pyo actually became calmer and grabbed Jae-min’s hand as it moved toward the second button.

“That’s enough. I’ll do it.”

Jae-min’s hand slipped away without resistance. Seung-pyo began to silently undo the buttons. Unlike before, the buttons didn’t slip; they came undone properly, and finally, the front of the shirt opened wide.

Inside the school shirt, a thin, white short-sleeved t-shirt hugged his body. Seung-pyo took a deep breath like a warrior facing the final gate. He started to grab the hem of the shirt to pull it up, but then paused, lowered his hand, and suddenly dipped his head deep.

Jae-min’s waist jerked slightly in surprise. It was because instead of pushing the clothes up, Seung-pyo had bitten the bottom hem of the t-shirt with his lips.

Soft lips brushed against the flat lower abdomen, just above the waistband of the pants. As the unfamiliar sensation touched his bare skin, Jae-min’s eyebrows furrowed slightly. He soon began to scold Seung-pyo.

“What are you doing… why are you eating my clothes…”

He could have just stripped the clothes off and rubbed his lips against the bare chest, but in inverse proportion to Jae-min’s anxiety, Seung-pyo no longer wanted to rush.

It had already been a week since he told Jae-min he wanted to suck his nipples and asked for an answer. Whether it was a permission granted after long deliberation or an impulsive decision, now that he finally had the answer, he wanted to do it well rather than just messing around. Oh Seung-pyo was the type of person who, once he decided to do something, wanted to do it perfectly—even if that meant not doing it at all.

As he slowly lifted his head, the clothes he had been biting came up with him, gradually revealing the hidden bare skin. Seung-pyo’s lower lip slid slowly upward, rubbing against the stomach.

“Ah, ah-euk…”

Even at the light contact that barely brushed the skin—something that would hardly even feel like a tickle—Jae-min didn’t know what to do and bit his lip hard. In time with his panting breaths, his flat stomach and slender waist rose and fell.

The ribcage was now fully exposed, leaving only the chest covered by the clothes. After swallowing hard once more, Seung-pyo flicked the clothes upward.

“Whew…”

Only after clearing the t-shirt up to the collarbones did Seung-pyo release the fabric he had been biting. It was a trivial thing, but he must have been quite nervous in his own way, as a large exhale escaped the moment his mouth was free.

Holding the clothes down with his hand so they wouldn’t slide back down, Seung-pyo gazed at the bare body, which looked like fruit that had just been peeled.

Ryu Jae-min’s body, which he had first seen in low-quality videos filmed in dark places, was now fully bathed in the sunlight of 70 meters in the air, streaming through the glass windows. The white skin was almost radiantly bright, and the target Seung-pyo had been aiming for…

“What the… why is it so pretty?”

Seung-pyo muttered unconsciously. He fucking understood why those internet perverts kept singing about wanting to suck his nipples.

Being the perverts they were, those guys must have been able to vividly imagine this sight from just a few crude videos and photos Ryu Jae-min had posted.

“Are you crazy? Nipples are all the same.”

Ryu Jae-min countered Seung-pyo’s admiration with a genuinely bewildered face. Like many boys his age, his expression suggested he felt the word ‘pretty’ was more of a mockery than a compliment.

But Seung-pyo’s own impression took priority. The same, my ass. When you go to school, play sports, and hang out, you naturally see your close friends shirtless at least once. So he must have seen other nipples in passing, but other than the fact that there was one on each breast, they had nothing in common with Ryu Jae-min’s in terms of color or shape.

Then again, he had never paid close attention to what other guys’ nipples looked like when they were shirtless, so maybe Ryu Jae-min was right. Maybe others were similar and Oh Seung-pyo just didn’t know because he wasn’t interested… though that was unlikely.

“Don’t get angry. I’m not saying you’re pretty.”

Seung-pyo slowly brought his lips close to Jae-min’s chest.

Perhaps because the owner was feeling awkward, the pink protrusions resting like small petals on both breasts seemed to be shy as well.

“I’m saying your nipples are pretty.”

As he finished the sentence, Seung-pyo swallowed one nipple into his mouth. He felt Jae-min’s body tense up.

“Hng…!”

He had only pressed his lips and lightly bitten the small protrusion, but a hot, hazy voice escaped Jae-min’s mouth.

Seung-pyo looked up, staring intently at Jae-min’s face as if he didn’t want to miss a single reaction. Jae-min, who had clamped his mouth shut to swallow his moan, slowly lowered his head toward Seung-pyo. His eyes, which had looked wet with heat during the kiss, were now trembling slightly with anxiety.

Seung-pyo trapped the nipple in his mouth and carefully moved his tongue. He tapped the small protrusion slowly with his tongue, then licked it, sucking with a distinct chup sound.

Jae-min’s face, which had seemed to regain its color for a moment when the kissing stopped, flushed red again. Despite having offered his nipples first without being asked, and despite the fact that he had been panting frantically during the kiss, Ryu Jae-min—perhaps because he didn’t like being called ‘pretty’—stubbornly kept his mouth shut.

Since he only had one mouth, he couldn’t suck two nipples at once. Seung-pyo decided to use his hand instead. While rubbing and licking the protrusion with his tongue, he used his fingertips to rub the other nipple, which had become thicker than before.

“Eu, mm… huu…”

Was it because his breathing was becoming more labored, or because it felt good? Jae-min’s tightly closed mouth was opening again.

Not missing the chance, Seung-pyo opened his mouth and took more of the soft flesh inside. He grazed the skin around the nipple with his teeth as if scratching it, then sucked more strongly. As he wrapped his arm tightly around Jae-min’s lower back and sucked his chest with loud, wet sounds, Jae-min’s body flinched in his arms as if jumping.

He had thought Jae-min would like it since he had whimpered with pleasure just from having his neck licked, but Jae-min was becoming more excited than Seung-pyo had expected.

“Ah, ah…! Ah, wait… ah-eut…! Mmm…”

Jae-min’s fingers dug into Seung-pyo’s short hair. He tried to push Seung-pyo away, but far from being pushed, Seung-pyo clung closer, like a dog biting a person.

As if he would never let go, he nibbled and persistently bit and sucked the nipple. Jae-min’s voice turned into something like a sob again.

“Haa, ah, Oh Seung, pyo, wait, a second…”

If he had put his mind to it, Ryu Jae-min should have been able to push one person like Seung-pyo away easily, but his arms lacked their usual strength. Seung-pyo, who had been absorbed in his task, finally grinned and released what he had been holding in his mouth.

“Why can’t you use your strength?”

After badgering him to stop for a moment, Jae-min said nothing once he was released. He simply cast his gaze downward, mouth open like an exhausted person, exhaling ragged breaths.

On the white, flat chest, only the areas Seung-pyo had sucked were stained with reddish blotches spreading toward the areola. The pink color of the nipples had deepened, turning almost crimson.

“Hmm?”

Seung-pyo asked the silent Jae-min again, rubbing his lips against the other breast. Hng, Jae-min let out a small moan, closing his eyes slightly. Seung-pyo chuckled and stuck out his tongue.

“I get it. ‘Wait a second’ meant you wanted me to suck this side too.”

“Ah, no… hyaa, ah…!”

Slower than before, but more intensely, Seung-pyo licked the other protrusion that he had only been touching with his hand. As he swallowed it into his mouth and sucked softly, Jae-min raised his voice with an aa-uu moan, his waist trembling.

Seeing the faint abdominal muscles around the navel twitch, Seung-pyo had to wipe the smile from his face and suppress the heat surging inside him. He reached out as if possessed. While his mouth continued to tease the chest, his hand slid down from the collarbones to the lower abdomen.

Just as he had placed his lips wherever he saw on the nape of the neck, Seung-pyo now slid his lips all over the fully exposed upper body. Not just the nipples, but the solar plexus that rose and fell with his breathing, the area around the ribs, the navel, and down to the waistband of the pants.

“Haa, ah! No, ah-eut… Oh Seung-pyo, no…”

Before he knew it, Jae-min’s body had slid down the wall, sprawling almost lying down on the two-person plastic seat. Seung-pyo, with his face pressed against Jae-min’s body, naturally ended up in a position leaning over him.

Seung-pyo lifted his head slightly. Jae-min, who kept repeating that he couldn’t, had an expression Seung-pyo had never seen before—like someone on the verge of tears. The guy who usually defaulted to an arrogant, expressionless face only looked at him this desperately, like a drowning man, at times like this.

He had seen Ryu Jae-min’s lewd expressions a few times, but today he looked truly dangerous. Even more so than when he had masturbated in front of him as if venting his anger.

Seung-pyo felt he understood why Ryu Jae-min was saying ‘no.’ Seung-pyo also thought that he couldn’t go any further.

And yet, his hand slid down the smooth stomach… all the way below. Unable to bring himself to push inside, he slowly rubbed and gripped the shape of the center, which had clearly become hard, over the pants. Jae-min shook his head and pushed Seung-pyo’s shoulder.

“Don’t…!”

He probably tried to say ‘don’t do it,’ but Jae-min soon let out a breath mixed with a moan. He curled his back and trembled.

Even though he was only gripping the genitals and slowly stroking upward, without properly kneading or shaking, Jae-min’s panting grew more violent. Haa, haa, haa. The anxious sound of breathing stimulated Seung-pyo’s ears.

“Ryu Jae-min.”

“Don’t… hng, this, here…”

As Jae-min barely finished his sentence, his eyes grew slightly moist.

“I can’t. I can’t… hold it anymore…”

Even his voice seemed to be damp. Seung-pyo’s heart beat as if it would burst.

He wanted to whisper for him not to hold it back. No, he wanted to push him until he truly couldn’t hold it and went wild. What would happen if he pushed his hand inside the underwear and directly rubbed and touched the hard cock beneath? Would he really start streaming tears?

It was equally hard for Seung-pyo to endure the surging heat. His lower abdomen grew hot and tight.

“Eut, eu…!”

Seung-pyo’s hand, which had been slowly stroking Jae-min’s groin over the clothes, dug slightly into the waistband, as if it were truly about to enter the pants. Jae-min grabbed Seung-pyo’s sleeve and squeezed his eyes shut.

While fighting the battle between impulse and patience, a sound he had completely forgotten echoed through the air.

Clunk, screeech…

[Attention, please.]

Jae-min snapped his eyes open.

The two of them, who had been exchanging nothing but trembling glances while facing each other, blankly turned their heads. The spring outside the window—the wide, peaceful scenery of the amusement park—entered their field of vision once again.

[To all passengers of the Neverland Ferris Wheel, thank you for your patience. The power system repairs have been successfully completed, and the ride is now resuming normal operation. We sincerely thank you for your calm cooperation.]

…Right.

He had forgotten that there was a time limit from the start. Realizing the situation he had momentarily lost sight of, Seung-pyo slowly pushed himself up from his position, which had been leaning heavily toward Ryu Jae-min.

Forgetting his phobia, he stood blankly in the center of the gondola. As the ferris wheel began to move, the distant, feverish atmosphere that had enveloped them both seemed to evaporate; it felt as if he had visited another world for a brief moment and then returned.

Seung-pyo looked down at Jae-min, who was still reclining diagonally on the seat. Jae-min, looking up at Seung-pyo, furrowed his brow.

“Ugh….”

Waking from a dream-like moment, Jae-min—who was far more disheveled than Seung-pyo—seemed to feel a greater sense of bewilderment at the abrupt end of the situation.

However, the pleasure that had heated his body to the limit just moments ago didn’t recede so easily. Even after managing to sit up, he couldn’t immediately fix his appearance; he kept his head lowered, catching his breath. The hand attempting to fasten his buttons was trembling slightly.

“Ryu Jae-min.”

Seung-pyo called out to him urgently. Jae-min reflexively looked up.

“Just stay still. …I’ll do it.”

Only then did Seung-pyo sit beside Jae-min and reach for the front of his shirt. He neatly straightened the t-shirt that was still slightly rolled up and began fastening the buttons from the top down.

While he quietly fastened the buttons, Jae-min’s face, which had been flushed with anxiety and embarrassment, gradually calmed down. Eventually, he began to look around with an awkward expression. As Seung-pyo fixed the bottom-most button, Jae-min spoke softly.

“I could have done it myself.”

“Conscientiously, the guy who unbuttoned it should be the one to button it.”

Seung-pyo shot back jokingly, then let out a chuckle as he looked at Jae-min, whose lesser panda headband had slipped and tilted.

“What are you laughing at?”

“This really suits you.”

As Seung-pyo adjusted the headband properly, Jae-min reached up to touch it, as if he had forgotten he was wearing it.

“Ah, take it back now.”

“Just keep it on. I’m telling you, if you don’t wear this at an amusement park, you’re a loser.”

“Take it and make sure you aren’t the loser.”

The ferris wheel began its slow descent, and the other rides, which had looked as if they were sunken far below, were gradually returning to eye level. Seung-pyo hesitated before asking.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.”

Jae-min’s response also carried a hint of awkwardness.

Seung-pyo noticed Jae-min’s hands resting neatly on his lap. He stared blankly at the white, clean hands before suddenly grabbing one.

“Why?”

Jae-min asked curiously, but instead of answering, Seung-pyo brought the captured hand to his lips.

When he popped one finger into his mouth and gave it a little bite, Jae-min frowned as if looking at a crazy person. Shortly after the finger was released from his mouth, a clear tooth mark remained.

Jae-min looked down at the mark on his finger and grumbled.

“What is wrong with you?”

“The inside of your clothes is all spotted right now, but your hands are too clean. It’s funny.”

“What’s so funny about that? You psycho….”

“Are you normal, suddenly telling me to suck your nipples on a ferris wheel?”

“Was that for nothing? I only did it because you were so scared. You did the same thing earlier in the ghost world….”

“When did I ever tell you to suck my nipples in the ghost world? I never did that.”

“It’s the same thing.”

Having lumped two completely different events together, Jae-min looked down near his collar, seemingly concerned about the hickey. However, there was no way he could see the back of his own neck. He furrowed his brow slightly and asked.

“Is it still red?”

“Hmm, just a bit here. But I think it’ll disappear soon.”

“Damn it, what is this. You should’ve made sure it didn’t leave a mark.”

“Just say a mosquito bit you.”

“Where are there mosquitoes right now?”

While they were bickering, the ferris wheel fully landed. Just as when they boarded, the door swung open for them to exit.

“Thank you for waiting. Have a wonderful time.”

The attendant greeted the two as they stepped onto the ground. Along with a sense of relief, he felt a sudden drain of energy. Rather than riding something else or sightseeing, he wanted to sit somewhere and just space out and rest.

“Let’s get something to drink.”

At Seung-pyo’s suggestion, Jae-min followed him without a word. Sitting in a restaurant and checking the time, it was roughly lunchtime.

Ordering a hot dog with a large sausage and a cola each, the two sat opposite one another and ate in silence for a while.

“Oh.”

At the sound of Seung-pyo’s voice, Jae-min, who had been staring only at his plate, looked up. Following his gaze out the window, the sunny sky had turned gloomy and overcast.

A few raindrops began to plop down, and soon the rain started to fall in dense streaks. Seung-pyo complained.

“The forecast said it would rain, and it finally is. I thought it wouldn’t.”

“Do you think it’ll keep raining?”

“I hope it just rains for a bit and stops.”

But far from stopping, the rain grew heavier. The people who had been wandering outside all ducked into buildings to wait for the sky to clear, leaving the outdoors empty.

The restaurant was becoming quite crowded as well. However, rather than the noise behind them, the two listened together to the sound of the rain outside. Although it wasn’t a place separated from the outside like the ferris wheel, they heard the sound as if they were sitting side by side in a space meant only for the two of them.

While staring blankly out the window with empty plates before them, a voice suddenly cut through the cluttered noise and called them.

“Oh Seung-pyo, Ryu Jae-min!”

“Have you guys been together this whole time? You said you’d call, but you didn’t.”

It seemed the other kids they had been with had also entered the same restaurant to avoid the rain. Seung-pyo waved his hand.

“Sorry. We didn’t really want to ride the Extrain, so we went to the zoo.”

“You said rollercoasters were fine—was that just a bluff? Did you see the tigers? Did you eat?”

“Yeah. Roughly.”

The other kids, who hadn’t eaten yet, rushed to the counter to order. At the fact that their time alone had ended like this, Seung-pyo felt a strange bitterness in his mouth.

Something more….

A little more….

But he couldn’t clearly finish the thought of ‘a little more’ even to himself. A little more well…? He could have done it a little better? While he fiddled with his phone, wondering what the appropriate sentence would be, Jae-min asked casually.

“You said you live with your Hyung, right?”

“Yeah. He came home after drinking a lot yesterday, so he’ll probably be home all day today.”

“Are you going straight home after the field trip?”

“Yeah, probably? But depending on the time, I might go play games with the guys.”

There were no academy classes today. Since Jae-min attended the same academy, there wouldn’t be much difference in their schedules anyway. Unless he was taking private tutoring.

For Ryu Jae-min to be so interested in his after-school schedule for once—was this the effect of sucking his nipples? Just as Seung-pyo was about to make a snide remark, the other kids approached with long strides.

“There are so many people because of the rain. It’s taking forever for the food to come out.”

“Must be nice that you guys are already finished.”

The returning kids spread their food out next to them and began a noisy lunch.

Just then, a notification popped up on Seung-pyo’s phone. It was a direct message notification from a social media app he rarely checked these days. The last time he had used it was to exchange videos with Ryu Jae-min….

Seung-pyo opened the message window nonchalantly. The sender of the new message was Ryu Jae-min, who was right in front of him. Seung-pyo glanced at Jae-min, who was playing it cool without a single change in expression, and checked the content of the note.

[Both my parents are at a seminar in Jeju today, so they’re not home]

[If you have time, you can come over to my place]

Seung-pyo snapped his head up and stared at Jae-min. The kids eating their food asked Seung-pyo.

“Oh, by the way, Oh Seung. Let’s go to the PC cafe when we get back to Seoul. We don’t have academy today.”

“I can’t today.”

“Why?”

“I have something to do.”

“Ah, why are you flaking on games so much lately?”

The kid who was flatly rejected grumbled, but Seung-pyo’s expression was solemn.

He felt like he had been hit by a double-whammy starting from the ferris wheel. As expected, the cyber-slut was no ordinary person in real life either.