How does NaCl (or any inorganic salt) increase surface tension? Does the compound "prefer" to stay in the solution?
If yes, wouldn't the surface tension of the solution be equal to that of pure water, since only water is in the surface?

See: Does NaCl reduce the surface tension of water?

Or is the compound distributed evenly and because the ionic bonds are stronger than the attractions between water molecules, the surface tension increases?

Read here a reddit answer to why do ionic compounds such as NaCl increase the surface tension of water?

Explain like I'm 5 please.
I hope this picture helps.

The interaction between a molecule of water and an ion is stronger than the hydrogen bonding that occurs between two water molecules.