The Strongest, but the Genre Is Magical Girl

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“Make sure to fasten your seatbelt—”

With the teacher’s reminder, the bus started to rattle along with the engine’s roar.

As the body of the bus swayed, I absentmindedly stared at the empty insides of my bag.

They said it would be in there by morning, but all I found inside the open zipper was a complete lack of Gomteng.

Clothes broke free from the zipper I checked.

As I pushed down those ballooning items and zipped it back up, I elbowed Siyeon, who was sitting on the armrest next to me.

“Why?”

“Check if the sea snake is there.”

With her head tilted in confusion, Siyeon leaned in closer, whispering just for my ears.

Carefully lowering my voice so the other friends around wouldn’t hear, I continued.

Right after making a puffing sound, Siyeon lifted her bag onto her thigh.

Amid the zipping sound, on the top of her bag—

The sea snake that had spent the night in her bag was sitting there, pretending to be a doll and keeping its place.

I was worried what would happen if both were missing, so at least one being there was a relief.

Gomteng, see you after the school trip.

“Is the bear not there?”

Getting the hint from my question about the mascot, Siyeon stuck her head out from behind the armrest, whispering again in my ear.

“Yeah, it’s not.”

In response to such a question, Gomteng’s absence was mumbled in a rather dull tone, as if expected.

I had this nagging feeling when she was overly confident.

The bus, which had been rumbling on the playground, started off with a booming sound.

Maybe because some were late, the bus left at 7:16.

The travel time was expected to take a minimum of 3 to 4 hours.

After all, it was a journey with nearly 90 people moving all at once.

If we were on the subway, we could get there in about two hours, but you shouldn’t care about efficiency on a trip like this.

Inside the bus, with the engines humming and students chatting, the atmosphere erupted with the sound of crinkling snack bags.

Once one person started munching on a snack, the wave of opening snacks spread like wildfire.

Caught up in the mood, I dug out a snack buried deep in my bag.

It was a “Comeback X-Chip,” Hot Spicy flavor, designed with a wavy pattern.

If I accidentally spoke its name, I’d face a disaster turning into a spectacle in front of everyone.

Holding the sharp snack bag from the top, I casually ripped the side open.

I placed the bag onto the armrest and held it steady with one hand to avoid it tipping over.

As if waiting for the opportunity, Siyeon’s fingers reached for the snacks too.

“They’re yummy.”

“Mm.”

Mixed in with Siyeon’s comment about how tasty it was, my quiet affirmation chimed in.

The salty crunch that felt as if my tongue was drying up and the spicy flavor with a hidden sweetness burst in my mouth.

The taste of snacks enjoyed during travel is far more special than munching on them alone in my room.

I also like sweet snacks like cookies, but really, snacks should be salty.

I didn’t deliberately choose this flavor because of its name, but when it was time for salty snacks, this one was a go-to selection.

And so, the story started while munching on snacks.

“How’s your drawing these days?”

The first question revolved around Siyeon’s drawing updates.

Even though we live in the same house, we hardly have chances to chat for hours, even if we’re just a reach apart.

Among that, she didn’t share the site where she posts her drawings, but she often shows me the results for feedback.

To kill some time and stir up a lengthy conversation, I planned to delve deeper into the journey ahead during this three-hour bus ride.

“Yeah, I get quite a few comments and likes.”

Siyeon delightfully enjoyed the reactions to her drawings.

With hardly any negative experiences, she only appeared blissfully cheerful.

I remembered the post Gomteng showed a few months back titled ‘Commission Village,’ prompting me to ask out of concern.

“Any weird comments?”

I didn’t directly ask, “No one asked for weird animal drawings, right?”…

I merely bundled those kinds of demands or hate comments under the term ‘weird comments’ when I asked.

“Weird comments?”

“No, if you don’t know, forget about it.”

Siyeon tilted her head as if she had no clue about what I meant by ‘weird comments’ and returned my question.

With a puzzled expression almost seeking examples, I shrugged it off, suggesting that if she didn’t know, it was fine.

It was better not to know, and even if she did, there was really no need for any prior knowledge on such matters.

“Is there anything difficult in drawing?”

Hoping she wouldn’t take an interest in the odd remark, I subtly diverted the conversation flow to whether she faced difficulties in drawing.

Siyeon fell right into the shift, promptly listing the challenges she encountered.

“Coloring is a bit tough… I want to make it look three-dimensional, but it always ends up looking flat, you know?”

“Wow.”

Listening to Siyeon’s troubles as she took another step deeper into the world of art, I melted away the three hours smoothly.

Soon it was past 10 o’clock, already 32 minutes in.

Thanks to a slightly late departure, we managed to arrive a little earlier at the amusement park than the scheduled 11 o’clock.

Surprisingly, the roads weren’t congested despite the late start.

“Let’s head out one by one from the front—”

Aside from the special circumstance of a school trip, it was just a regular weekday.

I didn’t expect it to be completely empty, but—

The crowd was unbelievable, even compared to Children’s Day at the amusement park.

‘Is this all from visitors on a weekday?’

The number was immense, as if the entire world gathered here.

According to the schedule, we would be spending a whopping 10 hours here.

Basically, a whole day where we’d spend lunch and dinner at the amusement park until 9 PM.

Definitely, it was a level of freedom incomparable to the old school trips where we just went to see rocks.

Never would I have thought I’d feel how drastically the world has changed on the first day of a school trip.

Pulling out only the power bank, wallet, and water bottle from my bag, I exited the bus.

“What do they have at XX Land?”

“A lot!”

Gathering at the front of the bus, we chattered away waiting for the homeroom teacher’s instructions.

Even before entering the amusement park, the talk was filled with excitement and worries about “Which ride should we try?”

Honestly, 10 hours might sound like a long time, but looking at the number of people, it seemed unlikely we could even get on one ride an hour.

After a brief attendance check, the teacher handed out meal coupons to each of us.

[Student Group Special Meal Voucher (10,000 won)]

“Okay, the tickets I’m handing out now are meal coupons, so if you lose these, you’ll have to buy food with your own money, alright? Enjoy yourself, have lunch, and we’ll check attendance again at 1 o’clock at the main gate, and meet back here at 9 PM, understood?”

“Yes!”

Perhaps because of group entry reservation benefits, we ignored the long line and headed straight into the entrance.

Once inside, we received a short warning but now had complete freedom.

With absolutely no interference, we had time to eat and ride whichever attractions we wanted.

Just walking around would take a few hours in this gigantic amusement park.

I felt somewhat overwhelmed by its size.

Grabbing one of the many brochures piled near the entrance, I noticed detailed descriptions of the various rides and attractions.

There was so much information, it almost left my head spinning.

It seemed like it took me about 5 seconds just to locate where we were standing on the map…right, finding the entrance, that was.

“What should we try first?”

“Yeah…”

Even saying “Which ride should we try first?” was complicated, as the names didn’t match their attractions.

Instead of just calling it a spinning cup or merry-go-round, it had fancy names like Flower Dance for the spinning cup and Royal Horse for the carousel…

The first challenge was distinguishing what was what with those ridiculous names.

Amidst the various rides and facilities, one area suddenly caught my eye.

‘Utopia… is that a zoo?’

“Why?”

Siyeon responded to my sudden halt, glancing at me.

I pointed to a spot on the map and asked slyly.

“How about this?”

“A zoo? Sounds great!”

Upon seeing ‘Utopia’, Siyeon immediately recognized it as a zoo.

Without a hint of hesitation, she quickly began checking which direction to head based on the entrance.

Creatures I’d never seen in person before, as I’d only glimpsed them through photos, were detailed in the guide that they were operating only until 5 PM.

That would be our first experience.

‘Wow, there are really so many people…’

And the wait time was a whopping 1 hour and 40 minutes.

As we thought about getting out for lunch, it felt too wasteful after waiting so long, so we diligently took pictures of tigers, lions, bears, and more before finally exiting.

Checking the time when we were outside, it was 12:36 PM.

“Wow, it’s almost 1 already…”

That experience alone took a solid 2 hours.

“I’m hungry.”

Siyeon complained of hunger as we walked toward the main gate.

After all, breakfast had just been eggs and rice at 6:30, barely past the morning.

With it almost 1 PM, naturally, she would be hungry.

“Let’s check attendance quickly and go eat.”

Gathering at the main gate at 1 PM without even having lunch yet, we completed the attendance check.

Once freedom was regained, we headed toward the restaurant area for lunch.

If there was a downside to this amusement park, it was the restaurants scattered about.

They each had distinctive designs based on their themes in total conformity, but for hungry middle school girls, finding a nearby restaurant was urgent.

With the overly salty chicken pieces and hamburgers provided by a fine-looking man with a white mustache, that became our lunch.