At the next science practice, Saeon went to the neighboring bench. This was where Saeon had noticed the water level on the way out. Today, it was time to read the record in front of it.
Dure opened the honey-colored notebook on the shelf. Sodam set the piece box beside it. Saeon opened the triangular folding board, too.
“Let's leave our own words again today.”
Saeon remembered finishing the explanation in the math area. This time, too, Saeon wanted to write that last line. A fingertip tapped the folding board's edge once.
Floor 1 · Experiment Area
Observation: Before-and-After Records of the Same Container
A clear plastic observation container stood on a low base. Its top was open, and water remained at the bottom. It was different from the locked lid on the last ice container.
Teacher Gwak stood beside the base. The wide hallway stayed open behind the three friends. There was no heating equipment beside the container.
The observation board held before-and-after pictures side by side. Both showed the same container and base. The water was higher in the before picture.
The actual water matched the level in the after picture. Saeon lowered their head a little to check. The bottom corners of the pictured containers lined up, too.
The teacher opened the record beneath the board.
“These observations were made ahead of time. We aren't waiting for the change to happen now.”
The record said the container had held only water, with no ice. It had stayed in the same place. The water hadn't been boiled, spilled, or wiped away.
Another line described the observed change. Some liquid water at the surface had changed into water as a gas. Beside it was an empty space for an explanation.
First, Saeon pointed to the two pictured water levels. Above the lower level, a bare stretch of container wall showed. The water left inside was still clear.
“Do we write our display words here?”
The teacher opened a hand toward the blank space.
“Place them so the pictures and record work together.”
Moeun stopped in the hall. The route down from the upper floor had stayed inside the railing. Moeun held the round observation board against one side.
“It got lower without boiling? Is the water picture wrong?”
Moeun's fingertip stopped before the after picture. Saeon looked at that lower water level again. Moeun had come from upstairs and stopped at the same thing.
Saeon lined a hand up with the before picture's water level. Changing the after picture to that height would make them look even. The words wasn't boiled stayed in Saeon's mind.
“Then the height should stay the same.”
Saeon wrote a short note on the folding board.
No boiling. No change in the water.
Below it, Saeon drew two containers. Both water levels matched the before picture. Saeon slid the board toward the explanation space.
A round knot of light wrapped around the observation board's edge. Cream-colored eye-like gaps showed between dull amber strands. None of the strands touched the water or its container.
A Tangle. A device made from a mistaken idea. It stayed beside Saeon's pictures of matching water levels. Sodam kept looking at the original after picture.
“Hang on. The record hasn't changed.”
Saeon stopped pushing the folding board. The new pictures lined up with each other, but not with the recorded pictures. No change in the water sat beneath Saeon's hand.
Quest
Little Must-Boil Tangle
Before-and-after pictures and observations of the same container
Keep what was observed unchanged.
Explain the change in liquid water.
Reward: New Skill
Was wasn't boiled the only part that mattered?
Saeon didn't attach the folding board to the explanation space. Both hands pulled back from the blank spot. Sodam's fingertip moved to the line they hadn't read closely yet.
“No boiling is a condition.”
Next, Sodam pointed to the lower water level.
“This is what was observed.”
Saeon looked at the before-and-after pictures again. Saeon had raised the second water level to match a guess. Instead of explaining the change, Saeon had erased it.
Dure pointed to a blank notebook page.
“Before we copy. Read the change line first.”
The fingertip moved toward the open record below the board. Saeon read that line aloud in parts. First came liquid water at the surface.
“Then water as a gas.”
The same water connected to their last explanation. Before, hard ice had changed to flowing water. This record started with water already in its liquid state.
Saeon looked at the water's surface in the container. The gas in the record couldn't be spotted by eye. Saeon nearly wrote that it wasn't there, then lowered the hand.
Sodam placed a fingertip at each end of the change line.
“Let's write the water's states separately.”
Saeon erased no change in the water. The after picture with the matching height went, too. Looking at the original board, Saeon redrew the after water level lower.
“I only looked at the part about no boiling.”
The hand drawing the lower level paused. The record didn't need to fit Saeon's picture. Saeon could add a reason beside the picture instead.
Sodam pointed between the folding board and the original. The container bottoms and water levels in both pictures got a check.
“Now it matches what was observed.”
A thin cream-colored pin reached toward the board's edge. The round knot's strands stopped in place. No light stretched into the hallway behind them.
Under the pictures, Saeon wrote liquid water. Beside it went water as a gas. Sodam pointed to surface in the record, too.
“Keep where it changed.”
Saeon added at the surface before liquid water. Dure copied the two water levels into the notebook. Nothing was drawn in the empty space above the water.
“Keep what we saw. Put the explanation beside it.”
Dure's hand stopped at the page's edge. Saeon looked at Dure's pictures beside the new words. The lower water level and the change of state were both there.
Moeun moved a hand from the after picture to the record below. The round observation board lowered as Moeun read the change line.
“The picture's right. The state changed even without boiling.”
Moeun pulled back without changing the after picture. Saeon looked at the erased spot on the folding board. Even an idea said out loud could change after checking the record.
Sodam read their explanation from the left.
“Liquid water at the surface changed into water as a gas.”
Saeon pointed to the picture and added,
“So it changed even without boiling.”
Dure swept a fingertip once along the notebook's edge.
“The pictures and change match. We can finish here.”
Saeon stood the folding board in the explanation space. Dure opened the before-and-after pictures beside it. Sodam spread them apart so the record below stayed visible.
They hadn't changed what had been observed. The explanation still included the change from liquid to gas. Saeon read the record once more through the gap they had left.
The amber knot's last strand came loose. The unraveled strands turned cream-colored and lay straight across the observation board. The remaining water stayed in the container.
The light had unraveled on the board. The water hadn't turned into light. The little result light at the front of the base came on.
Saeon showed the corrected pictures and explanation to the teacher.
“I changed the pictures to fit my guess. Then I read the record and drew them again.”
Sodam pointed to the line about the change.
“The liquid water at the surface changed. Into water as a gas.”
Dure held up the notebook, too.
“We kept the pictures and wrote the change of state beside them.”
The teacher looked at their pictures and words in turn. Without raising a hand, the teacher listened to the end.
“You've kept what was observed.”
Liquid water at the surface changes into a gas called water vapor. That change is called evaporation. Water vapor itself is invisible.
Saeon wrote the name beside water as a gas. Water vapor. The lower water level they could see stayed separate from the state they had named in the explanation.
Quest Clear
Observed appearance · Changed state checked
Little Must-Boil Tangle · Unraveled
New Skill: “Hidden Water Vapor” — Evaporation
A small recess opened at the front of the base. Saeon stepped away from the container and bent down. Inside lay a real little stone stair piece with three steps.
The tiny hollow above its top step held no stone. Blue light climbed the edges of the steps.
Last time, it had stopped halfway across the top hollow. This time, it filled the whole empty space. The light spread evenly across the stone beneath it.
“The light filled it all the way.”
Saeon's hands stayed outside the recess. Even filled with light, it hadn't gained a new stone. No letters or patterns appeared on the piece, either.
None of them took out the piece. When the cover returned, Saeon straightened. The empty space above the container still looked clear.
Dure checked the pictures once before closing the notebook. Sodam studied the folding board standing in the explanation space. Saeon left the corrected words on display.
Moeun turned toward the open hallway. Saeon and the others stepped back from the bench, too. Their finished explanation stayed beside the picture of the lower water.
All three still walked on the same bottom floor. Saeon pictured the light filling the top hollow. The tower's upper stairs continued beyond view.
What was at the top?