Chapter 19: I Won’t Do It Anyway (1)

There was a nationally-famous amusement ride in the water park that Kang Ra-Eun and co had gone to, which was the Dynamic Slide that shot down vertically. It was so famous that it was known as a must-ride attraction. Of course, there was no way that Ra-Eun and the others would miss it. They thought that they had lined up relatively early, but...

“I didn’t expect there to be so many people,” Na Gyu-Rin said.

“I know,” Seo Yi-Seo replied while nodding.

Since it was a weekend during their peak season, the line for the Dynamic Slide was as long as it could be. The waiting time was at least an hour and a half.

“What do you guys want to do?” Gyu-Rin asked while fixing her glasses.

Yi-Seo and Choi Ro-Mi wanted to wait. As for Ra-Eun...

“I’m not all that interested in going on the rides,” she said.

“Then there would have been no point in coming to a water park. Let’s just wait, okay?”

Ra-Eun held in her sigh from Yi-Seo’s aegyo-filled request. They decided on waiting due to a majority vote. Thankfully, the line was shortening quicker than they had expected, but that was pretty much the only good thing.

The water park employees standing in front of the long line of lockers to the left and right of the line shouted, “Please put your personal belongings in these lockers!”

“You can come get your belongings with your key after enjoying the ride! Please return your key to us once you do!”

Guests were not allowed to ride the Dynamic Slide with any personal belongings on them. While people were putting their cellphones and the like in the lockers, one more item was added to the list.

“Excuse me,” said the female employee toward Ra-Eun, “please take off your outerwear as well.”

“My outerwear? Why?” Ra-Eun asked.

“It might get stuck on the ride on your way down. It would be a huge problem if an accident were to occur.”

“...”

Ra-Eun directed her attention to the Dynamic Slide safety regulations board. Like the employee had said, guests were only allowed to wear their swimsuits on the ride.

‘Shit.’

Ra-Eun cursed and pulled down the zipper of her outerwear that she had sworn to never take off.

“...Wow...”

“Amazing...”

She could hear the whispers around her crystal clear. People around her were busy staring at her body that was hard to believe was a high schooler’s. The same went for the female employee, who had belatedly come back to her senses. She smiled awkwardly and received the outerwear that Ra-Eun had handed her.

“P-Please come get it after enjoying the ride,” the employee stuttered.

Ra-Eun was intending on doing whatever it took to get it back, even if she was not told to. Yi-Seo, Gyu-Rin and Ro-Mi excitedly observed Ra-Eun, who had returned back in just a bikini. Just then, Gyu-Rin said something outrageous to Ra-Eun.

“Ra-Eun, can I touch them?”

“Touch what?” Ra-Eun asked.

“Those.”

“...”

Gyu-Rin was talking about Ra-Eun's destructive chest. Her answer was obvious.

“Not in a million years.”

“Why not?! They’re not gonna wear down from just a little touch.”

“I hate nothing more than someone touching me, whether they be a man or a woman, so don’t even get your hopes up.”

“Tch, I guess it can’t be helped.”

Ra-Eun had almost unconsciously activated her defensive instincts against the disappointed Gyu-Rin.

***

In the Dynamic Slide, guests started off standing still, and then the floor suddenly disappeared to drop them down vertically, truly deserving of its ‘dynamic’ name. Ra-Eun’s turn had finally come, and an employee let her know of the precautions.

“Put your arms over your torso in an X position. Also, your bikini strap may come undone as you go down, so do not take your hands off of your chest area once you’re down there until you’ve checked, okay?”

Ra-Eun nodded. She had gone to the water park a few times with friends as Park Geon-Woo, and he had once seen a woman in a predicament because her bikini strap had suddenly come undone. Ra-Eun did not want that to happen to her. She hated others touching her, but she hated others gazing at her body in an indecent manner even more.

She assumed an X position with her arms over her torso, and then...

Huu.

She lightly exhaled. The timer started counting down.

3, 2, 1.

Zero!

The floor suddenly disappeared, and Ra-Eun started falling at an astonishing speed. She turned a few corners along the flowing water and ended up at the bottom in a flash.

Ra-Eun checked the position of her swimsuit before getting up. Her bikini top had just been slightly pulled up, and everything else was fine. She fixed the bikini top before getting off of the slide.

‘It feels a bit tighter than before.’

She decided to go to the bathroom later to fix it. Ra-Eun speed-walked to the lockers to get her outerwear back before her friends came down the slide. People around her gazed in pity as she pulled the zipper back up. Gyu-Rin, Ro-Mi and Yi-Seo had all come down once she came back with her belongings.

“Oh, there she is.”

“We were looking all over for you.”

Ra-Eun pointed to her outerwear.

“I went to get this,” she said.

“You looked so much better without it.”

“Not at all.”

Others may have found it better, but that wasn’t the case at all for Ra-Eun.

***

They went to a food stand to get some lunch after going on one more ride.

“There are so many people here,” Yi-Seo commented in surprise.

Meanwhile, Gyu-Rin had found empty seats.

“There are some empty seats over by the corner there. Let’s go.”

Gyu-Rin’s sensibility allowed them to quickly find seats. As they were about to eat, two men carefully approached them.

“Hey there!”

“Are the four of you by yourselves?”

The two men were obviously university students. Yi-Seo, Gyu-Rin and Ro-Mi all had confused faces.

‘They’re trying to hit on us,’?

Ra-Eun thought as she stared at the men chatting up a storm.

She was right on the mark.

“There happens to be exactly four of us as well. Isn’t that just perfect?”

“We’re all here to have fun, so why don’t we all make some fun memories together?”

“Ah, umm... We’re, uhh...” said Yi-Seo, trying to refuse them, but...

“You don’t have to be so uncomfortable. We’re not bad people.”

“We’re just here with friends to have some fun before we go to the army. We’re not doing this out of any impure intentions, so you can relax. Right?”

“Of course!”

The two other men in the back, seemingly friends with the two men who had come up to them, were looking at the girls, full of expectation. The men misunderstood that they would succeed as long as they pushed a bit further, from how the girls were being indecisive.

One of the men went for a more direct approach and extended his hand out toward Yi-Seo.

“Don’t be like that and let’s have lunch togeth—”

As the man was about to forcibly lay his hand on Yi-Seo’s shoulder, Ra-Eun grabbed his wrist and pushed on its weak region.

“Gaaahh!” the man screamed.

But even so, Ra-Eun did not let go. She brightly smiled at the astounded men.

“We’d like to have fun by ourselves, so could you please fuck off before I break your wrist?”

She was smiling, but her voice carried bloodlust. She was brimming with stress with nothing to vent it out on because of her bikini, but the perfect sandbag had appeared in front of her to do just that. Ra-Eun let go of the man’s wrist, but his entire arm was shaking from the aftereffects. She warned them once again.

“Should I call some employees over to tell them that there are four knaves trying to forcibly have fun with four girls even when they’re saying no?”

The men left with faces that looked as if they had aged several years.

Yi-Seo thanked Ra-Eun for helping her. Meanwhile, Gyu-Rin, who was sitting across from Ra-Eun, said satisfyingly, “I knew it was a good decision to bring Ra-Eun with us.”

Hearing that, Ro-Mi reminded Gyu-Rin of the conversation they had earlier.

“You said you were still uncomfortable around her before.”

“That was then, and this is now. Ra-Eun, I name you as one of our true friends,” Gyu-Rin declared.

Ra-Eun smirked at her playful declaration.

“Sure, thanks.”

***

After having fun at the water park, it was time to go home. Ra-Eun headed to the changing room with her friends.

Meanwhile, a short-haired woman, accompanied by a man in a suit unbefitting a water park, stared at Ra-Eun as she got further away. She slightly lifted her sunglasses.

“Could she have been...?” the woman muttered.

“She? Who? Did you see someone you know?” the man asked.

“She’s not really someone I know...”

The woman put back on her sunglasses and continued to stare in the direction that Ra-Eun had disappeared to. She said as she looked up at the man next to her, “Team Leader, I thought of a pretty good idea.”

1. Aegyo is a Korean term referring to a cute display of affection through one’s voice, speech, facial expression or gesture.