At the next science practice, Saeon went to the Experiment Area. Sodam and Dure came, too. They had left the clock disk in the math gallery.
Saeon remembered Dure's hand pointing to the end of one full turn. Today, they wanted to look at the objects first. Saeon slowed their eager steps a little.
Beyond the last magnet station stood a low observation bench. The stairway door was open behind them. Instead of climbing, they walked sideways along the same floor.
“This station today.”
Floor 1 · Experiment Area
Today's Observation: Before and Now
A clear plastic container stood on the bench. It was round and about the size of a palm. Its sandy-colored lid was locked.
The container stood upright inside a low base. A rectangular observation board stood separately beside it, with an empty gap between them.
Teacher Gwak Doeun waited near the base. Saeon leaned forward a little to peer inside the container. Clear water remained at the bottom.
The little result light along the front edge was off. A wide hallway lay open behind them. Today, there were no magnet handles to grab.
Sodam folded the record from the last practice, put it on the shelf, and let go.
“I've closed the last one.”
Saeon watched Sodam's hands leave it shut. No more checking the two cases they had already seen. Dure opened the honey-colored notebook beside the observation board.
One picture was tucked into the board's left side. It showed the same lid and base as the real container. Inside was one bumpy lump of ice.
There were no words in the picture. The ice held its shape above the container's bottom. Saeon looked from its corners to the real container on the right.
Now there were no corners like those. Saeon looked again, from under the lid to the bottom. No lump of ice. Only clear water.
The teacher pointed to the left picture.
“This is an earlier record of this container. It held ice made from water.”
The teacher's hand moved beside the real container.
“The lid has stayed locked. Nothing has been put in or taken out.”
Saeon pointed to where the ice stood in the picture, keeping a fingertip outside the board. That solid-looking lump was nowhere now.
“No ice. It disappeared, right?”
Saeon opened a blank face of the folding board. A finger traced the corners from the earlier picture. In the next space, Saeon pointed to no shape at all.
No ice, so maybe that space should stay blank. Saeon started to close the board. Dure's hand paused at the end of the notebook, too.
Dure looked at Saeon and raised an empty palm to chest height.
“Not yet. Hear me out, too.”
Saeon lowered their hands, leaving the board open. They had heard those words at math practice. Again, Saeon waited to see where Dure would point.
Dure's finger went to the earlier picture. It stopped at an ice corner, then moved toward the real container. The finger waited in front of the water at the bottom.
“I'll look once more.”
Sodam adjusted the arm of their glasses and pointed to the locked lid from outside.
“Hang on. The container wasn't opened.”
Saeon checked the lid's lock. The lid in the picture was closed in the same place. On the right, where Saeon had imagined a blank, there was water.
Saeon tapped the bench edge once. Their hand stopped before touching the container. Cloudy amber light wrapped around the observation board beside it.
The strands formed a round knot on the board's frame. Two cream-colored gaps between them looked like eyes. Neither the left picture nor the right container was hidden.
The teacher gestured toward the observation board.
“It's a device made from a mistaken idea. Tell me what you see.”
The light stayed on that board alone. It did not move to the container or water. After Saeon withdrew their hand, it did not grow.
Surprise Quest
Little Disappearing Tangle
All the ice in the observation container has melted.
What state is the water left inside?
Reward: New Skill
Saeon read the question and checked the container again. Saeon had said something disappeared. The question asked about what remained. Right in front of their finger, there was water.
Dure pointed between the earlier picture and the container.
“Look past where the ice was. All the way down here.”
Saeon's eyes lowered to the bottom. The water was so clear that the base behind it showed through. Saeon had nearly passed it over as an empty container.
No ice shape. Nothing at all. Could those really mean the same thing?
Saeon set down the board they had been about to close. Dure left the notebook open, too, with its blank space beside the earlier picture.
“I'll see if what's left moves.”
Saeon looked up at the teacher. The teacher checked the lock and base.
“Tilt it just a little. Leave the lid as it is.”
Saeon held both sides of the container and lowered one side slightly within the base. Nothing came out.
The water gathered toward the lowered side. It flowed over the place where it had rested before. It did not hold up pointed corners like the picture.
“It was still here.”
Saeon set the container upright in its base. Water gathered at the bottom again. The locked lid had not changed.
Dure pointed from outside to the side that had been lowered.
“Now it moves with the container.”
Then Dure pointed to an ice corner in the earlier picture.
“Before, it held a lump's shape.”
Dure's hand paused between the two. Saeon looked at the space they had left blank. Because there were no corners, Saeon had left out the remaining water, too.
Then a shallow recess opened at the front of the base. With hands off the container, Saeon leaned forward. Dure brought their fingertips together outside it.
Inside was a little three-step stair piece. A line of light climbed its rounded edges. Its tip reached just below the upper slot.
“This far now.”
Dure's finger stopped outside the recess. Saeon remembered the light at the last science station. This line reached a little higher.
The upper slot was still empty. Even with light right beneath it, no stone filled the space. There were no letters or patterns on the piece.
In the math gallery, light had traveled downward. Here, it climbed upward. Saeon pictured both directions but had not seen where they met.
Nobody took out the piece. When the recess closed, Saeon looked at the container again. The water remained inside, standing upright.
The strands still wrapped around the observation board. The little result light was off. Seeing the glow was different from finishing the observation.
Dure pointed to the notebook's blank face. Beside the earlier picture, they drew the water at the container's bottom. They did not make it the same height as the ice in the picture.
“I only wrote that the shape was gone.”
Dure moved a hand back to the ice's original place.
“I left out the water that stayed.”
Saeon studied Dure's new picture. Beside the bumpy lump was water lying along the bottom. It was not a drawing of an empty container.
Dure pointed to the earlier picture, then looked at the real container.
“Before: solid.”
The fingertip stopped in front of the bottom.
“Now: liquid. Finished.”
Dure swept a hand once along the page's edge. When it reached the end, the knot on the observation board loosened. Tangled strands unfolded into cream-colored light.
The eye-like gaps closed between the strands. The untangled strands lay straight on the board. They did not scatter into the air.
Saeon looked from board to container. Straightened light on the board. Clear water inside the container. The water itself did not glow.
“It didn't disappear.”
Saeon pointed to the blank right side of the folding board.
“I only looked for the ice shape. I missed the water here.”
Sodam looked at the bottom and lowered a hand.
“The water left is liquid.”
The little result light came on. They had checked the ice's shape in the earlier record. Now they had watched the movement of the water left after the ice was gone.
Saeon checked the two places Dure had pointed to. Before, the ice was solid. After melting, the water left in the container was liquid.
Saeon looked up at the teacher.
“I thought the container was empty. Water was still inside.”
Dure took a hand off the notebook, too.
“The ice melted into liquid water.”
The teacher waited until both had spoken, then nodded.
“You looked carefully.”
Quest Clear
Little Disappearing Tangle · Unraveled
New Skill: “Same Water” · Melting (Solid → Liquid)
On the blank board, Saeon pointed to where the water remained. Next time, maybe they could look even where there was no lump. Saeon closed the board and tucked it under one arm.
Dure checked the new picture once, then shut the notebook.
“My record's finished, too.”
The container stayed locked in its base. The water stayed inside. The straight strands on the board and glowing result light remained behind.
Far away stood the next observation bench. Two clear plastic containers waited side by side. Their insides were not clear from here.
“Let's go to the next station.”
Saeon waited until Dure hugged the notebook, then walked. All three followed the open hallway side by side. Even past the stairway door, they remained on the lowest floor.
Saeon slowed and looked up. The slot was empty, but light had reached just below it. Today, Saeon had learned to look again at what remained.
What was at the top?