A rough, persistent hand shook my shoulder with the force of an earthquake.
"Mountain. Wake up. Come on, get up," Kim Si-woo's voice pierced through the fog of my sleep.
I groaned, burying my face deeper into the pillow as my eyelids fought against the pale morning light streaming through the window. My head throbbed with a dull, rhythmic ache—the unmistakable souvenir left behind by Myung-dae's toxic concoction and yesterday's party.
"Looks like you had a lot of fun last night," Si-woo muttered, looking down at me with a mixture of sympathy and mild disgust. "You need to quickly get up. Morning warm-up starts in ten minutes."
Across the room, Kim Ram-go was engaged in an actual physical wrestling match with Cheong Bo-min. Bo-min had wrapped himself in his duvet like a cocoon, mumbling incoherent curses into his mattress while Ram-go literally dragged him onto the wooden floorboards by his ankles. After a heroic thirty-second struggle, Bo-min finally sat up, looking like a corpse that had been summoned back to life against its will.
Si-woo tossed a pack of mint candies onto my lap, then unzipped his toiletry kit and unleashed a cloud of expensive cologne into the air around my bed.
"Eat those and put some of this on," Si-woo instructed, swatting the scented air toward us. "You two stink like a distillery full of cheap soju."
I popped two mints into my mouth, letting out a quiet, internal chuckle.
'If only you knew soju was just the baseline... there was beer, makgeolli, and a chemical weapon involved.'
When we finally stumbled out the front door into the crisp morning air, Myung-dae and the three rebels were already standing near the gravel path. Myung-dae had his hands shoved deep into his hoodie pockets, looking surprisingly upright despite his heavy drinking hours prior.
The entire student body gathered in the central clearing for the mandatory morning exercise session. Because Jin-hyun and Leo were registered as external guests, they were exempt from the drill—a fact I envied with every fiber of my soul as I stood shivering in my sports windbreaker.
Ms. Choi was leading the session herself, dressed in a sleek, surprisingly stylish dark sports tracksuit. A few energetic parents had even joined the front row, bouncing on their toes in the freezing mountain air.
Ms. Choi scanned the ranks of Class 2-A and Class 2-B, her eyebrows drawn together in deep, administrative confusion. Half the students were swaying where they stood, clutching their stomachs, or staring blankly into space with bloodshot eyes.
'I really hope she never finds out what half of us were doing at three in the morning,' I prayed silently, wincing as a sharp spike of pain hit my forehead.
Still, the freezing forest air felt surprisingly invigorating once we started jogging along the pine-lined perimeter trail. The cold oxygen cleared the lingering fog from my lungs, though the same couldn't be said for Lee Ha-neul.
My host sister was shuffling beside me like a pale, ghostly specter.
"You didn't look this dead back on Jeju," I whispered, leaning toward her with a faint grin.
Ha-neul didn't even turn her head.
"Shut up, Mountain," she hissed through gritted teeth.
Her eyes flicked toward the nearby outdoor fitness park. Ms. Choi was currently executing effortless, crisp pull-ups on the high bar, watching our passing formation with a strange, knowing smirk on her face. She raised her voice, shouting enthusiastic encouragement to a group of second-year girls who were struggling through basic stretching exercises—the exact same girls who had been dancing in the living room three hours ago.
Further down the line, Han Min-gyu was gallantly trying to assist Yoo Chae-rin as she attempted to reach the horizontal bar.
"Here, let me lift you—" Min-gyu offered gently, reaching out.
SLAP.
Chae-rin instantly smacked his hands away the second his palms hovered near her hips, her face turning bright red all the way to her ears.
"Don't touch me!" she grumbled, turning her back to hide her flush.
I rolled my eyes, letting out a heavy sigh into the cold air.
'Aish, lovebirds... at least try not to make a public scene during morning drills.'
Meanwhile, Park Jun-seo and Lee Myung-dae were actively maintaining their usual five-meter safety perimeter from each other. Despite being slightly paler than normal, both of them managed to look remarkably composed—a miracle considering the sheer volume of alcohol they had swallowed during Cham Cham Cham.
The moment the warm-up concluded, a mad rush broke out as sixty students sprinted back to their respective houses to claim the showers. Long, impatient queues instantly formed outside every bathroom doors.
Ten minutes later, I was standing in the second-floor hallway wrapped in a large bath towel, holding a pair of clean boxers and my clothes, waiting for Ram-go to finish his turn.
To pass the time, I pulled out my phone and opened KakaoTalk.
The [VISUAL AND MUSIC ARTS TRIP 2015] group chat was flooded with over a hundred new media uploads from the previous night. I scrolled through the feed, a wide smile breaking across my face as the memories came rushing back.
Ji-min had been utterly relentless with her camera.
There were several candid snapshots of me engaged in the 3-Second Song Guessing Game alongside three laughing girls from Class 2-A. Another photo caught me mid-laugh with my heavy arm slung around Jun-seo's shoulders, holding a paper cup. Further down, a crystal-clear shot showed Myung-dae, Bo-min, two other guys, and me clinking bronze cups together near the kitchen island like old war comrades.
'Damn,' I thought, shaking my head with a chuckle. 'Min-ah really needs to recruit Ji-min into the Kirin's Secret team.'
I was beginning to seriously doubt that the Occult & Divination Research Club was the right fit for her talents. Ji-min was a top-tier photographer and an absolute master of secret intelligence gathering.
CLICK.
The bathroom door finally swung open, and Ram-go stepped out in a cloud of steam.
"All yours, San-ah."
I jumped into the shower, washed off the lingering smell of smoke and spirits, and changed into clean clothes. By the time I made it back to my room, I had roughly ten blissful minutes to collapse onto my mattress and close my eyes.
BUZZ.
My phone vibrated against my chest.
I unclosed one eye and looked at the screen.
A new message from Ms. Choi had just landed in the official trip group:
[Ms. Choi]: All students and guests gather near the faculty villa in fifteen minutes. Busses depart shortly.
I let out a long breath, pushing myself up into a sitting position. The leisurely portion of the retreat was officially over. Today's schedule was stacked with community service—and our next stop was performing for the children at the local orphanages.