Chapter 72: Enlistment (2)

Kang Ra-Eun’s eyebrows furrowed at the mention of military service. Most Korean men would show the same response as her if anyone mentioned it to them. Ra-Eun only had one thing to say about the army.

‘It’s hell.’

The Ministry of Defense talked about how it was a place where it inspired patriotism and increased self-esteem, but not a single man in Korea believed that to be true. Ra-Eun was not a man, but she used to be. She was a bona-fide active-duty high school girl who had been honorably discharged upon completing her military service as a sergeant, so she felt extremely conflicted after hearing about it.

“Oh... really? But don’t men usually enlist after they attend university for about a year or two?” Ra-Eun asked.

That had also been the case for Ra-Eun. Although nothing regarding which university that Choi Sang-Woon could enter had been decided since the official results had not been released yet, he had gotten quite a decent score on his provisional marking. It was high enough to take a shot at aiming for Seoul National University like he had promised with Ra-Eun.

It was a miracle in and of itself that he was able to raise his grades this high, so she thought that Sang-Woon would want to experience university life first. However, Sang-Woon thought otherwise.

“I wanted to do that too at first, but I changed my mind. An older brother relative of mine told me that getting the service over with first makes you a winner.”

Ra-Eun agreed while strongly nodding, “That relative of yours is a wise man.”

“Huh? How do you know that, Ra-Eun?” Sang-Woon asked.

Ra-Eun was talking like a discharged soldier despite never having been to the army.

“No, well, I just heard stories from that son of a... I mean, my o-oppa that one should complete their military service as quickly as possible.”

It didn’t matter whether or not the service would actually be reduced by a few months in the future. Everyone was envious of those who were already discharged. Sang-Woon had followed his relative’s advice and scheduled everything so that he could start his military service right after his university enrollment was finalized.

“So I’m gonna play as much as I can before I go,” Sang-Woon mentioned.

“Got it. I’ll try to hang out with you as much as I can too.”

“Huh? Really?”

Ra-Eun smiled at the surprised Sang-Woon. She knew very well that he would long for the existence of women as soon as he enlisted.

‘We’re friends, so hanging out with him is the least I could do.’

However, she was a little worried as well.

‘I hope he doesn’t get the wrong idea again that I like him just because I’m doing this.’

She wanted to avoid a second confession.

***

There was no longer any need to go to school now that the SATs were over. Taking classes was now a waste of time. Knowing that, the teachers ended classes much earlier than usual to not bother the students. The students who had completed their SATs were allowed to go home after lunch, which exponentially increased Ra-Eun’s free time.

She and her friends had decided to watch the movie Night of Villains, an extremely popular Korean action movie, at the cinema. However...

“What the hell, tickets are sold out?”

“How are there no seats left at this time of day?”

Kim Yeong-Gyo and Na Gyu-Rin groaned in disappointment. At this time, students were supposed to be studying at school and workers were supposed to be at their workplace. However, such principles did not apply to the third-year high schoolers who had just completed their SATs.

They had free time as soon as noon passed, which was why they had come to watch a movie, but they had overlooked one crucial thing. They were not the only third-year high schoolers who had completed their SATs. The examinees who could not even freely go to the cinema until now had all taken the chance to watch a movie and flocked to the cinemas, hence the tickets had all been sold out at such a time frame.

Choi Ro-Mi smacked her lips in disappointment.

“We would’ve come here earlier if we knew this would happen.”

Their plan was completely ruined. Since their main plan had gone down the drain, they started to formulate a Plan B.

“Oh!” said Yeong-Gyo in surprise as he flipped through the pamphlet. “How about we watch this instead of Night of Villains?”

They checked which movie he was referring to. He had suggested the movie Sacrifice?as their alternative. The genre was...

“This is a horror, right?”

It was obvious from the poster. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Yeong-Gyo answered while nodding, “It’s rumored to be super scary. I’ve wanted to watch it at least once. What do you guys think? You guys wanna watch it if no one here has?”

Seo Yi-Seo, Gyu-Rin and Ro-Mi’s gazes turned from the pamphlet to Ra-Eun. She had been completely fine until just a second ago, but now she had completely frozen. Her pupils were shaking, and her thin and lustrous lips were subtly trembling. Only her three high school girl friends who she hung out with often knew that she absolutely despised horror. There was no way that anyone else knew, since they had never gone to the cinema with Ra-Eun.

The others started to agree with the idea while completely oblivious to Ra-Eun. It seemed like they would be watching the horror movie by how things were rolling. Yi-Seo, Gyu-Rin and Ro-Mi were the only ones who hadn’t made the decision yet because they were worried for Ra-Eun.

“O-Okay! L-Let’s watch it!” Ra-Eun decided.

Yi-Seo asked Ra-Eun for confirmation with worry-filled eyes, “Are you sure? Will you be okay?”

Hearing that, Yeong-Gyo asked in puzzlement, “You can’t handle horror movies, Ra-Eun?”

Everyone looked at Ra-Eun in surprise. There was no one among men and women combined who was more charismatic and reliable than Ra-Eun. She could be relied on even when they came across thugs who one-sidedly picked a fight with them, so they had never expected her to have such a weakness.

However, Ra-Eun strongly denied Yeong-Gyo’s question, “No, not at all! Rather, I watch horror all the time!”

The others responded as if it was expected.

“True. There’s no way Ra-Eun would be scared of stuff like this.”

“Then let’s watch it.”

“There’s a row with the perfect number of seats too. What a coincidence.”

Ra-Eun did not need such a coincidence. She could only resent her pride of not wanting to look weak.

.

***

In the end, they had entered the theater to watch the horror movie. Fortunately, Ra-Eun was right next to the aisle and Yi-Seo was sitting next to her. She once again went full chicken mode as soon as the movie started. Her small shoulders flinched greatly like a cat reacting sensitively to even the smallest sounds.

Yi-Seo smiled bitterly as the closest one to Ra-Eun. She held Ra-Eun’s hand to reassure her as much as she could. Her hand was drenched in sweat.

Ra-Eun whispered, “I’m sorry. I’m sweating so much...”

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

Yi-Seo wanted Ra-Eun to rely on her for a change since Ra-Eun was always helping her. That's what friends were for.

***

Ra-Eun’s body completely gave out as soon as the hour and forty-minute movie ended. She was so tense throughout the entire movie that fatigue swept over her.

“S-Survived...” she said unconsciously.

Sang-Woon heard her while he was getting out of his seat and said while nodding, “Yeah, the female protagonist survived until the very end. I thought she’d be dragged away by that ghost in the end.”

Ra-Eun was referring to herself instead of the female protagonist, but there was no way for Sang-Woon to have known that. Ra-Eun agreed with Sang-Woon while smiling awkwardly.

She speedwalked to the women’s bathroom as soon as she came out of the theater, and wiped her neck with a handkerchief. People would think that she had run a marathon from how much she had sweated. She was at least relieved that her other friends did not find out that she was scared of horror movies.

‘But it’s not like this damn pride of mine pays for my meals...’

Ra-Eun was suddenly slapped with a reality check. She came back out of the bathroom with the handkerchief after a deep sigh. Ro-Mi grabbed Ra-Eun’s wrist as soon as she came out.

“Ra-Eun, there’s a sticker photo booth over there. Let’s take some together!”

“Huh? Oh... sure.”

She took her place in the booth among the girls. High school girls liked leaving memories like this very much. On the other hand, the boys were waiting outside for the girls to be done. Ra-Eun was placed on the center top. She made a V sign like what her other friends were doing while smiling and posing awkwardly.

Snap!

The girls exchanged a flurry of feedback once the photos were printed.

“Ra-Eun looks the prettiest as expected.”

“You can say that again.”

“Come on, Ra-Eun is a celebrity. You’ll only feel shame if you compare yourself with her.”

Ra-Eun was complimented for her beauty all the time, but she could never get used to them. She used to love being called handsome back when she was a man, but it didn’t feel as great the other way around.

As Ra-Eun came out of the photo booth, she looked at Sang-Woon who was waiting with the other boys.

She then called out, “Hey, Sang-Woon.”

“Hm? What is it?”

Ra-Eun gestured to him to come. He had no idea why, but went to her anyway.

“When did you say you were gonna start your military service?” she asked.

“Around the beginning of March of next year?”

“Really?”

It felt like a long time away, but actually wasn’t. Time flew by extremely fast when waiting for the enlistment date to arrive.

“Then let’s take some of these together,” Ra-Eun expressed.

“What are these?” Sang-Woon asked.

“Sticker photos.”

“...!”

Sang-Woon was bewildered.

“J-Just the two of us?”

“Yep.”

The others looked at Ra-Eun in surprise. She had almost never wanted to take photos together with a guy. However, she wasn’t doing this out of self-satisfaction.

‘He’ll need a bunch of pictures to put up on his army locker when he’s doing his service.’

She knew very well the importance of photos as an active-duty high school girl, so she decided to do her friend who had yet to enlist a favor.