Spring Day 轉; knj + ksj

Spring Day

The days soon passed by pretty quickly with our schedules filled with sightseeing and eating. The Manggul Cave was anticlimactic given how dark, cold, and slippery the whole place was. All of us hadn't anticipated that it'd be freezing. Though we had our winter jackets on, we hadn't bundled enough, so we were trying to sprint through the whole walk. Unfortunately, throughout the rushing, we were all trying not to slip, especially Taehyung. He was wearing his Gucci loafers which offered zero to negative support and grip. He was pretty much clinging to Jimin and Taehyung while sliding across the floor. Mind you, we were walking at least 2 km in this dark cave. Several times, we had to use our phones for lighting. Yoongi described the cave as "Batman's Lair".

The Cheonjeyeon Waterfall was much smaller than we had all anticipated. The highest level also had no water. We walked across an elaborate carved bridge and then down a set of steep stairs to see this waterfall. I still enjoyed seeing the waterfall surrounded by trees and rocks to the side. Yoongi's critique was that it was just an area where water fell down, a waterfall.

Hamdeok Beach was very beautiful, yet again, very cold. I started to feel like February was not the ideal time to visit Jeju Island. Several of our baseball caps almost blew away with the wind. The younger ones went off to run around the beach. I was off trying to find some crabs, which didn't really work out. We built a few sandcastles together and Hoseok ended up being dunked into the beach after losing a game we played.

Udo Island was one of the crazier adventures. Half of us, particularly Hoseok, became seasick. We had to keep sticking by plastic bags to vomit in them. By the time we reached the island, Hoseok was ready to nap and in fact spent most of the time at a café, sleeping. Taehyung was particularly excited about his peanut ice cream and even made a song about peanuts. He was documenting his whole peanut ice cream tasting experience on film. I wasn't a huge fan of peanuts to begin with, so that wasn't super exciting to me. What I enjoyed was the bicycle ride throughout the Island. We had to force Yoongi and the sleepy Hoseok on bikes. Yoongi kept complaining that we could have just rented scooters, yet he was still taking photos of the beaches. Hoseok was terrified of the incoming cars that frequently honked at us. One huge downside of the journey was that there was no clear separation between cyclists and drivers on the road.

The most difficult part of our trip must have been Hallasan. We had to buy hiking boots and some warmer clothes for the intensive hike. The whole place was covered in snow and most of us were cursing while drudging through the snow. We weren't very fast either and several older groups passed by us. I had no regrets hiking that mountain for its breathless view. I felt accomplished after going through such a tough uphill battle. What was annoying was coming down from the mountain. We had already used up all of our strengths and finished our chips and nuts that we were starving. We probably ate twice as much as we would have on a typical day.

Luckily, for the last day, we were just visiting Hallim Park. The park was filled with lots of exotic trees and animals. There was an impressive plant collection, interesting rock sculptures, and a small traditional village. The winter was here though, so the flowers were all withered and the gardens were not kept so well. I was feeling rather uninspired, especially with the snow falling. Just when we thought we were getting a break from the snow up in the mountains and the cold, we were faced with a bit more snow.

Then we came across a row of plum blossoms that were blossoming beautifully. I overheard Jimin quietly whispering to himself, "Spring . . . is finally here."

At this moment, Taehyung, Jungkook, Hoseok, and Yoongi were taking a photo with the stuffed toy, RJ. The background was the plum blossoms. Spring . . . was finally here, I thought too. Even if the winter would be long, spring would come one day. Immediately, I felt a surge of inspiration run throughout my body. I knew I had to write something down. Setting my backpack down and kneeling on the ground, I dug through everything to try to find a pen and my notebook.