How to get on the protagonist’s flower path

I felt cold sweat trickling down my back. This was dangerous.

I asked again, trying to deny it…

“The Seventh Key?”

“Yeah. It’s the key you got from the gumiho when you returned the fox bead.”

I was just confirming my own death sentence.

I looked at him with a troubled expression. What should I do?

But it seemed that Na Yu-han found courage from my face and continued speaking.

“In this world, keys are very important. So the existence of a new key is a significant variable. We don’t know what might happen… That guy told me not to worry about it, but I’m concerned about you. So if possible—”

And at that moment, I saw something large and red rapidly shooting toward him from behind Na Yu-han.

“Watch out!”

I threw my body to tackle Na Yu-han and shouted.

Whoosh—!

A huge object brushed past us, swaying threateningly.

What is it? I tilted my head slightly to look up.

The red object, bound by ropes, gradually narrowed its swinging radius and soon came to a stop.

“Is that… a doll?”

It was a giant red cat doll with green eyes.

Why did the doll suddenly appear here?

I stared at the doll, feeling bewildered. It had an infuriatingly smug smile on its face.

Just then, a small voice came from beneath me.

“Excuse me, could you… move a bit…?”

“Oh.”

As I lowered my head, I saw Na Yu-han’s face underneath me.

His face was flushed bright red like a tomato, and I quickly pretended to be embarrassed, covering my cheeks with my hand and backing away from him.

“Sorry!”

“…It’s fine.”

An awkward silence followed for a moment. To break that silence, Na Yu-han cleared his throat and looked up at the doll.

“This looks like a trap someone set up.”

“A trap? But it’s just us here, and the two teams in front of us didn’t say anything about traps.”

“…Then the culprit is obvious.”

No way.

At that moment, Choi Soo-jung’s earlier words flashed through my mind.

“Look forward to it!”

…Senior—!!!

No, more importantly, didn’t the other person try to stop her?

Seeing my shocked expression, Na Yu-han let out a deep sigh, as if he realized what I had just understood.

“…It’s not just Choi Soo-jung’s prank, but Lee Ha-na is surprisingly mischievous too…”

“What a shock…”

“Over there. If you look at the place where the trap starts, it’s probably set up so that when the ice melts, the doll will fall.”

It was indeed as Na Yu-han pointed out.

I felt a tremendous sense of betrayal from my reliable senior, Lee Ha-na.

While I was lost in shock, Na Yu-han mumbled, looking at the hallway we needed to proceed through.

“I guess we have no choice but to move forward carefully…”

Thus, our arduous journey began.

The traps set by Choi Soo-jung and Lee Ha-na were not just one or two. We found ourselves caught in all sorts of traps.

“Ugh!”

“Ugh!”

Suddenly, cat dolls were falling from the sky.

“But the dolls are cute…”

“Are they?”

“Yes!”

“Huh? Who just said that?”

“Uh?”

“Yes!”

“…A cat?”

“Wait, there are more than one or two! They’re coming this way!”

The moving army of cat dolls that had been lurking behind us launched an attack. How on earth were they made?

“What is this?”

“Blocking the way. A nuisance. Or maybe both.”

There were large, solid, ice-made puzzle cat dolls standing in the way, blocking every possible route.

And various other traps, too.

We had to struggle through all of them.

Finally, when we emerged outside the mansion, we were greeted by Choi Soo-jung and Lee Ha-na, who were casually bursting into a fanfare.

“Welcome~”

“Congratulations on passing.”

“Senior-!! It’s a betrayal! A betrayal!”

As I said this and playfully punched both of them, they laughed and handed me small cat dolls as a souvenir.

One was a brown rabbit doll with green eyes.

“It’s for you, junior~!”

“Me?”

““Yep. Yu-han is a cat.””

“What’s with these gifts…?”

Na Yu-han received a black cat doll with red eyes awkwardly, but he carefully placed it into his inventory.

Looking around, it seemed like the other kids also received a doll each.

Lee Ha-na smiled gently and said, “Actually, we prepared them as gifts, but we couldn’t find the right timing to give them to you.”

“They’re so cute! Thank you!”

I smiled brightly and stroked the small doll I received. The soft fabric felt pleasant against my fingertips.

It was an unexpected gift. It felt like I had received a present from Santa Claus that my younger self had long given up on.

“Alright, now is it our turn!”

“We’ll be back soon.”

Soon, Na Yu-ri, proudly holding a yellow cat doll with red eyes, and Park Si-woo, who had a black dog doll with blue eyes in one hand, entered.

And Choi Soo-jung winked at me and whispered, “The fourth team doesn’t know, but actually, there are more traps left~”

Whether that was true or not, it wasn’t long before we heard a loud crashing noise.

Um… Fourth team, fighting.

A while passed in a noisy commotion.

Our courage test finally came to an end when an angry Na Yu-ri stretched Choi Soo-jung’s cheek.

As I put the small, cute doll I had just received into my inventory, we all headed toward the beach.

The darkening sky was making the stars sparkle even brighter.

“Everyone, grab one!”

The final activity for the day was to etch small sparks into the night sky among those stars.

Excitedly urging my friends on, we carefully planted the fireworks in the sand.

After preparing all the fireworks, we gathered on the low beach we had seen earlier.

Some people plopped down on the ground, some squatted, and others just stood.

“Yu-ri, please!”

“Of course!”

Na Yu-ri immediately lit the fuse of the firework.

Crackle—

The sound of the fuse burning was heard, and with a bang! colorful sparks began to decorate the sky.

“It’s beautiful!”

“This is nice in its own way—”

“Right?”

I quietly watched the fireworks while listening to Min Jae-yoon, Na Yu-ri, and Shin Ba-ran chatter.

For a moment, I felt a sense of regret as the brilliant bursts of light disappeared.

I wished this moment could last forever.

As I had that thought, I finally realized, Ah, I’m happy right now.

“Nyahaha. Isn’t it beautiful?”

“Yes, it really is.”

Those fireworks, this moment, and all of you are truly beautiful.

I responded to Choi Soo-jung’s words while gazing at the colors fading into the darkness.

“This is nice, too.”

It marked the end of a journey.

Afterward, the girls and I parted ways with the boys and returned to our hotel room.

We all dumped our bath bombs into the bathtub, turning the water into an exquisite color, and we enjoyed a half-bath while chatting and playing late into the night.

Eventually, one by one, we grew sleepy and fell asleep.

I felt sad that this time was coming to an end, but I couldn’t resist the drowsiness that washed over me.

In the end, I also drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, we all rubbed our sleepy eyes, had breakfast at the hotel, and got into the car that Shin Ba-ran called.

We had to go home now.

By the way, Shin Ba-ran insisted that since Na Yu-ri paid for the hotel, she should cover the car fare.

I didn’t understand the logic behind it, but I decided to graciously accept. Thanks to that, I could comfortably doze off all the way home.

When it was time for everyone to head home, separate cars were waiting for each of us, which I thought was impressive in many ways.

Thus, I was on my way back to the orphanage in a limousine.

“Did you come in a long car, sister!”

“You’re rich! You’re rich!”