Truly, Rumi decides, this is an era of wonders.
"So we can leave at once!" Rumi sits up straighter, the dull throb from her injuries the only thing that keeps her from launching to her feet and marching out the door. "If it will just take a matter of hours to travel to Seoul, then there is no need for provisions! We will be back here to sup come evening!"
Modern travel was miraculous. And highly convenient!
"Okay, pendulum kinda swung too hard the other way." Zoey shakes her head, pinching the bridge of her nose. "We still need to, like, pack."
Rumi tilts her head confusedly. "...But you just said it is less than a day's journey. We can come back here just as fast. Packing should be unnecessary?"
Zoey makes a scrunched-up face, like she's trying to say 'yes' and 'no' at the same time. Mira is nursing along the last of her smoothie, not saying much; she had already admitted to not having much experience with travel ("evil cut family vacations aren't really a thing"), and Rumi suspects the- what was the word?- painkillers she took several hours past have worn off by now and her jaw is troubling her.
A horrible thought seizes her.
Did she ask a bad question?
"Here, perhaps this will help." Before she can apologize and take it back the honored shaman pushes off from the counter she's been leaning against and removes a folded piece of paper from the drawer (so much paper in this era...) and comes to the table.
Rumi's heart stutters as she watches her country unfurl amid the breakfast dishes. She knows...it has changed; what she learned during their car ride into town the day before (has it really only been a day?) still haunts the back of her mind like the scent of smoke that lingers long after a fire's been extinguished.
But here is Seoul, where Gyeongbok Palace stood shining and proud (was it still there?); here is the Han, a hooked blue line curving its way to the coast; here is Jeju, her home.
True, the colors are too bright, the paper too crisp, and...she is not sure of some of the city names or what some of the lines mean. But if she looks at it hard enough, focuses on the places and geographical features she does know, she can almost see herself back in her study, standing over a table with the children of the hanok crowded around as she gives a geography lesson.
She wondered what happened to them...if they were alright after Jinu-
The thought is leaden, and she forces herself from under it back to the present.
Mira is smirking at Celine. "You know only old people use these, right?"
Rumi blinks. They do? Wait...does that make her old? But Mira looks like it's funny so maybe it's a joke?
She is not sure she understands modern humor...
Celine is unruffled by the maybe-jab. "Being able to navigate via map is a useful survival skill. Unlike your phone, the mind does not run out of battery when you need it most."
"I have a solar charger!" Zoey pipes up, face un-scrunched.
Ryu Miyeong pipes up. "Well, suppose the day is overcast. Maps are useful then!"
"Not that you know how to read one," Park Minji rouses herself enough to add, giving her friend a little nudge.
"...Okay, but! I can still appreciate their usefulness."
(Ryu Miyeong seems oddly determined to please the shaman, Rumi notes; likely just grateful for agreeing to open her home to them)
"Anyway." Before Zoey and Mira can reveal how their phones stay functional on cloudy days Celine's finger is tracing an imaginary line from Jeju to Seoul. "I know travel is faster now than it was, but the distance is still the same, as is our need for food and water. Plus it would be wise to bring medical supplies and a change of clothes or two if we end up staying somewhere overnight."
That makes sense. Rumi nods. The world has changed, but it also has not. Or perhaps it is people that have remained constant, beneath the technology and strange clothes and customs and jokes she does not understand.
A groan from Ryu Miyeong interrupts her musings before they can veer too hard into philosophy. "Shoot..." she turns to Park Minji. "We don't have a change of clothes!"
Park Minji gives her a flat look. "We are wearing yesterday's clothes which we slept in and you're just realizing this now?"
Ryu Miyeong stammers and colors as Celine looks at her and Rumi gets the sense that she is not the only one who's travel-planning skills are somewhat...lacking.