“Do you want to get kicked again? You want me to kick your chair?”
Joo Unyoung answered more aggressively than usual, but Jingi wasn’t very surprised because he had seen him genuinely angry last week.
That level was nothing.
When Joo Unyoung was truly furious, he would spit out curses fluently.
Baek Jaehui let out a “Hmph,” and held up the snack he was eating.
“Hey, Joo Unyoung. Want a snack?”
“No.”
“Jingi bought this for me, too bad for you.”
‘Whoosh.’
Suddenly, eyes turned toward Jingi.
Jingi gave an awkward smile.
It was because there were one or two things he felt sorry to Joo Unyoung about.
There was no way a guy eaten up by abandonment issues wouldn’t be annoyed that his best friend bought snacks only for someone else.
Jingi took out the Pepero sticks he had hidden away for himself from his bag and handed them to Joo Unyoung.
“I bought these for you, too.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. They’re yours, Unyoung.”
Only after his expression softened a bit could he turn his body back around.
Just before turning, he felt the persistent gaze of Go Yeol watching him, but Jingi managed to barely ignore it.
He felt bad for Go Yeol, but for the time being, he wanted to stay away from him just a little bit.
He felt self-conscious, his mood was strange, and… for some reason, he felt uncomfortable.
“Class president, count the kids.”
“Okay.”
Seemingly confirming that everyone who was supposed to come had arrived, the teacher sighed heavily and folded the paper with the attendance list.
The class president, who was sitting in the back, walked toward the front while counting heads and reported, “Everyone is here.”
Since the bus for the front class had already left, our bus departed right after them.
Jingi leaned his head back and rested his body against the seat.
They had just left, but he already felt like he was getting carsick.
“Huu…”
He tucked his head back inside the curtain.
He had taken a seat as far forward as possible, applied a motion sickness patch behind his ear, and even taken medicine, but he was still nervous.
Highway buses always made him more carsick than other vehicles.
He wondered if Choi Jingi’s possessed body would be any different, but after watching it for a few weeks, he realized the body was changing as it accepted the Jingi from his previous life.
His morning wake-up time was getting later, and the diligent, motivated Choi Jingi had disappeared.
So, it was highly likely his motion sickness was the same.
Jingi took some ice water out of his bag, wet his lips, and slumped down again.
As he squeezed his eyes shut, the fatigue from the morning slowly crept in.
It was because they had left a bit early for the school trip.
Should I sleep for a bit?
“Hey, Choi Jingi. Did you see this?”
“What…”
Just then, Baek Jaehui poked him.
As Jingi turned only his eyes while staying slumped over, the guy shoved his phone in front of him and giggled at whatever was so funny.
It was something like a meme floating around the internet; it wasn’t particularly funny, but Jingi laughed along with him.
That made the guy even more excited, and he started looking for other pictures.
It felt awkward to tell the excited guy that he was going to sleep, so he leaned his head toward Baek Jaehui’s screen, pretending to be interested.
At that moment, a large hand from behind pressed down on Jingi’s head.
It was done with quite a bit of force, filled with resentment.
Look at this guy, taking petty revenge because I ignored him.
“Why.”
“Sleep.”
“Huh?”
Jingi and Baek Jaehui both turned around at the same time.
However, Go Yeol used force in his hand to turn Jingi’s head back to the front, making him rest his head against the window.
Revenge is revenge, but it seemed he still had something to say.
“You’re getting carsick, so sleep.”
“What? Choi Jingi, are you carsick?”
“Yeah… that’s why I took medicine.”
“You even put this on?”
Baek Jaehui messed with his ear and touched the patch.
The guy smacked his lips, then pulled Jingi’s cheek to make him lean against his side.
“Go ahead, big brother will lend you his shoulder. Sleep.”
“You’re uncomfortable.”
Since their heights were similar, there was no way it would be comfortable.
Maybe if it were Go Yeol, it would be different.
Jingi pouted, but perhaps because the bus had started moving, his eyelids kept drooping.
Having finished a whole box of Home-run Balls, Baek Jaehui straightened his back as much as he could and asked in a blunt tone, “Happy now?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll wake you up when we reach the rest stop, so sleep.”
“Okay…”
Whether someone had closed the curtain for him, his field of vision turned dark.
Then, earphones were put into his ears, and calm music began to play.
The sound of the students in the very back chatting loudly faded away into a blur.
Jingi whispered a small “Thank you.”
And just like that, he fell asleep.
In his dream, Jingi was sailing.
On the large ship, Baek Jaehui, Joo Unyoung, Go Yeol, and even Joo Hyeonje were riding along.
The destination for the four was an island called ‘Completion,’ but no matter how far they went, there was no end.
If only he could reach that place, he could get off, but strangely, the ship kept veering off onto other paths.
So, Jingi urged the crew.
They apologized, saying they had turned the wrong way, but the ship kept bending onto different paths and wobbled as it encountered huge boulders.
It was hard to turn back a ship that had already veered off elsewhere.
Jingi blinked vacantly, then sighed, thinking ‘let it be what it will be,’ and sat down.
Feeling the sea breeze, he thought this wasn’t so bad either.
It was a ship he boarded by accident, but strangely, his heart felt at ease.
Even though it was a small accident—not something he boarded because he wanted to, nor something someone pushed him into.
Yeah, what’s the point of getting off?
I’ll just suffer again and live like a beggar.
There’s no one who likes me, so what’s the point of going there?
Here, I have friends and parents, and I’m happy right now.
As he was just about to lie down on the ship entirely, someone poked him from behind.
When he turned his body, he saw someone he’d never seen before—it looked like Joo Unyoung, but also like Joo Hyeonje.
‘Who?’
‘It’s me Unyoung.’
‘Huh?’
The facial features were definitely Joo Unyoung’s, but his already tall frame had shot up even more, and minor details like his chest, shoulders, and hands had become massive, just like someone else’s.
Yes, exactly like Joo Hyeonje.
Jingi pulled his hips back instinctively.
At that, the guy grabbed his arm and pulled him close.
‘Is it really you?’
Uh? W-wait a minute.
Joo Unyoung gave a small laugh and lifted Jingi right up.
It felt just like he had become a koala hanging on a tree.
It was so high up that he instinctively hugged his neck, and Joo Unyoung smiled triumphantly.
Then, the crew members who had been scattered around watching the voyage started approaching the center one by one.
Before he knew it, Jingi had turned from a human into a very small cat.
When he looked down at his hands, they were made of fabric.
He hadn’t become a cat, but rather the cat plushie keychain that Go Yeol had given him.
Each crew member reached out their hands.
‘Choi Jingi!’
‘You’re Choi Jingi, right?’
‘Choi Jingi!’
His own name, which he had become used to, buzzed in his ears.
Jingi opened his eyes wide, then furrowed his brow and shook his head vigorously.
“Jingi, Choi Jingi.”
“…Ah, don’t, do that…”
“…What kind of dream are you having? Hey, wake up. Don’t you need to go to the bathroom? We’re at a rest stop.”
“Huu, I don’t want to… too, big…”
The massive Joo Unyoung was holding Jingi tight and jumping up and down.
The ship was rocking like crazy.
Jingi was also shaking uncontrollably.
He was worried his seams might burst.
Fearing what would happen if his stuffing came out, Jingi hugged his own body with all his might.
Just then, someone shouted angrily.
“Hey! You perverted jerk!”
“Huck!”
“What kind of, damn… you awake? Huh? You awake?”
“…Hey, who wakes someone up like that.”
Baek Jaehui’s cheeks were bright red. Jingi blinked with a dazed face, catching his breath.
The nausea from the ship rocking wildly slowly subsided.
He was concerned about Baek Jaehui, who was still flushed red. Jingi tried to adjust the air conditioner on the ceiling, thinking Baek Jaehui might be hot because of that, but since the bus engine was turned off, no air was coming out.
Only then did he have the leisure to look around.
More than half of the people who had filled the bus were gone, and he could see a rest stop outside the window.
“Who told you to have that, that, that kind of dream?”
“Ah, we’re at a rest stop. I want to go out.”
“Damn… you crazy jerk. You pervert. You psycho.”
“I need to eat a sausage.”
Certainly, after waking up from sleep, he didn’t feel nauseous anymore.
As expected, sleep is best for motion sickness.
Jingi took his wallet out of his bag and got up.
Baek Jaehui was still trembling as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have.
Because he’s a guy who only has filthy things in his head, he’s probably jumping to conclusions by himself again today.
He didn’t feel like clearing up the misunderstanding, so he pushed Baek Jaehui’s chest to make him sit down and got off by himself.
The guy shouted, asking where he was going, but Jingi was busy getting off the bus, thinking about eating a sausage.
Once he got off the bus, he saw the sun, which was faintly glowing, blocked by clouds.
However, the wind was warm and the air was stuffy, making him want to go back in as soon as he got out.
Clink, clink, coins in the wallet he brought clattered, making noise.
Even if it was hot, he couldn’t give up on the rest stop.
Jingi had a romanticized image of rest stops.
Even when the company sent him on business trips, they only gave him a train ticket and didn’t offer a ride.
When he was a student, he was obviously always working, so he had nowhere to go.
As he approached the snack corner, students were swarming, as expected.
Even though it wasn’t school trip season, he could see students from other schools mixed in.
Since it seemed to be a co-ed school, there were female students he wouldn’t usually see.
The most popular item was, naturally, the sausage.
Of course, the line was also long for the squid being sizzled on small pebbles and painted with red chili paste, as well as the round potatoes roasted nicely with butter.
Jingi stood in the sausage line right away.
Since the sausages were already cooked, the line moved quickly.
Seeing the plump, long sausage beautifully drizzled with red ketchup and yellow mustard made his mouth water.
