Chapter 10
***
“But what did you contact me about yesterday?”
After school.
A question suddenly occurred to me, so I asked Shin A-young.
“······Huh?”
“No, you wouldn't have contacted me for no reason.”
“It's just···.”
Shin A-young looked around to see if anyone was listening.
The only person nearby was Lee Sol, who was dozing off. Everyone was busy getting ready to leave and wasn't paying any attention to us.
Shin A-young covered her mouth with the back of her hand and spoke quietly.
“···I was just thinking we could play a game together?”
“A game?”
“Yeah. RUL duo. It might be slow, but we can play on a laptop.”
Hadn't we parted after hanging out at the PC bang?
At this point, she might actually be addicted to RUL.
“Or, are you free today?”
Shin A-young's eyes held a hint of anticipation.
Unfortunately, today was the day I had to go to the counseling club.
“I don't think I can because of the club.”
I didn't know when counseling would end.
Besides, it wasn't as if I could ask her to wait around indefinitely.
“···Really? Then it can't be helped.”
“Don't you have club today too?”
Although club schedules differed from one club to another, they generally overlapped more often than not.
As I'd expected, Shin A-young nodded.
“I do, but··· I'm planning to finish quickly and leave.”
— “I don't really want to go at all··· but I can't skip it either.”
Wasn't it the drama club she'd mentioned?
Until recently, she'd attended the club without saying anything, but she'd been reacting like this for the past few days.
Something must have happened. I just didn't know what.
Even though I could read thoughts, there was no way for me to know what was on her mind if she wasn't thinking about it.
···Instead, I could only read other thoughts.
— “Sigh. I want to play RUL, but I don't have anyone to play with···.”
Shin A-young's mini-me flopped down on the desk and began rolling around.
She looked perfectly fine on the outside.
“···Why?”
“Nothing.”
Shin A-young looked puzzled by my gaze.
She looked perfectly fine like this.
— “Sigh.”
But not on the inside.
Her mini-me sighed and rolled around.
— “Sigh, sigh.”
···This is really getting on my nerves.
“······.”
She probably had plenty of people she could play with. There were more than a few guys who would come running the moment she called.
It was just that none of them approached her solely because they wanted to play a game.
They all had some ulterior motive hidden beneath the surface. Shin A-young must have sensed that too.
That was probably why she was asking me.
She simply wanted to play a game.
— “Sigh, sigh, sigh.”
Seeing Shin A-young's mini-me sigh made me sigh too.
Sigh.
“If you're free after it ends, let's go then.”
— “···!”
At my words, Shin A-young's mini-me sprang to its feet.
“I'll finish quickly and come out, so wait right here.”
With those words, Shin A-young immediately disappeared.
As if to keep me from saying anything else, she abruptly brought the conversation to an end.
“······.”
I watched her go, then turned around.
I was standing in front of Lee Sol, who was sprawled across her desk.
“Hey, let's go too. Get up already.”
I repeatedly poked the cheek of the sleeping Lee Sol. Her bouncy cheek quickly returned to its original shape.
According to Jinuri, this was the best way to wake her up.
“Yaaawn······.”
Lee Sol slowly stretched.
Huh, this actually works.
She slowly closed and opened her eyelids. She looked completely drunk on sleep.
“······Seriously, how strange.”
Lee Sol looked at me and said something completely out of the blue.
“What is?”
“What do you think? The fact that Shin A-young is being friendly with you.”
Wasn't she asleep?
Apparently, she'd been listening to everything we'd said while dozing off.
I really couldn't let my guard down around her.
“Why is it strange that we're friendly?”
“No, I think this is the first time I've seen her get friendly with a guy.”
“Wouldn't you say she has plenty of close friends besides me?”
“Those other kids are the ones who approach Shin A-young first. She's the one who talks to you first.”
Lee Sol rested her chin on the desk and looked at me.
Her eyes were languid, but there was a hint of curiosity in her gaze.
— “······Could she be into ordinary guys?”
Probably not.
I denied her thoughts inwardly.
She probably just needed a gaming friend.
***
“We're here.”
“Oh, you're here?”
When we opened the clubroom door, we saw the club president and Senior Minji busily moving around.
They were wiping down the desks and sweeping the floor. It was a more thorough cleaning than usual.
“What's going on?”
“Our first counseling requests of the year came in. We got two today.”
The club president held out two white envelopes to me.
The words “Counseling Application” were written on the front.
“I thought it would happen soon, but that's pretty fast.”
I'd heard that the first counseling request usually didn't come in until after April had passed.
This was several weeks earlier than in previous years.
Had word spread among the students?
···Hm? What's this?
I looked at the numbers written on the envelopes and spoke to the club president.
“They're both Level 2?”
“···What's a level?”
Lee Sol wore a blank expression.
Come to think of it.
“I haven't explained that yet.”
The first counseling had started so quickly that there hadn't been time to explain.
“Counseling has a fairly strong professional aspect to it.”
Senior Minji continued the explanation in my place.
Scribble—
She neatly wrote on the whiteboard.
“Now then—like this.”
1. Light counseling.
2. Serious counseling.
3. Professional counseling.
“We made these to distinguish whether something is appropriate for the counseling teacher, or whether we can handle it ourselves.”
“Basically, just remember that we can only handle up through Level 2.”
We usually handled light counseling, or matters students felt too uncomfortable to discuss with a teacher.
Of course, there were also cases where students went to a teacher if that was what they wanted···
But these counseling forms had come straight to us.
In other words, the students wanted our help because they felt uncomfortable telling a teacher.
“What kind are they?”
“It's spring, after all. Things are usually similar around this time.”
So, was it love counseling?
It made sense. We'd made quite a name for ourselves with last year's love counseling.
“Since this is your first counseling session, you two should handle it together. Sol, just observe from the side.”
The club president planned to entrust this case to us.
Indeed, there was no better time than this.
Now that we had a new member in Lee Sol, it would be best for her to try things quickly if she wanted to learn.
“Let's start by signing the pledge.”
Two sheets of paper came out of the printer.
They were pledges not to disclose the counseling contents to anyone. As a rule, we couldn't even open a counseling application without signing one.
“Are you done?”
“Here.”
I checked whether Lee Sol had filled out the pledge properly. She handled things like this without any problems too.
Now that we'd signed the pledges, I took the counseling applications out of the envelopes.
I figured we should at least look at the profiles before the clients arrived.
“Let's see···.”
···Huh?
———
Applicant: Kang Han-sol.
Class: Year 2, Class 3.
Club: Band Club.
———
The moment I read it, I felt a strong sense of déjà vu.
···I'd definitely seen that name somewhere before.
My memory was hazy.
“Seung-ho, it's almost time for the client to arrive.”
“Ah, yes.”
When I checked the time at the club president's words, I realized it was already that late.
We should prepare for the counseling first.
Knock knock—
“Yes, come in.”
Rattle—
A fairly large boy stepped through the door.
His name tag was blue. He was in the same year as me, the second year.
He looked around restlessly. Most people who entered the counseling room reacted that way.
Counseling wasn't something people were used to.
···But.
‘That’s the guy.’
He was the boy Jinuri had avoided that morning.
It seemed I'd gotten tangled up in something much more troublesome than I'd expected.
“Sit wherever you're comfortable. Would you like something to drink?”
I suppressed my surprise and greeted him with the most natural expression I could manage.
“No, I'm fine.”
The client, Kang Han-sol, wanted to finish the counseling quickly rather than have a snack.
I felt the same way, so I got straight to the point as he wished.
“Could you tell us exactly what happened first?”
I asked him the question according to the manual.
I already knew what had happened from reading Jinuri's thoughts··· but as far as the others were concerned, I was supposed to be unaware.
“Phew······.”
After a short silence, he opened his mouth.
“There's someone I like in the same club, and I confessed to her recently.”
Right. This guy had confessed to Jinuri.
That was one of the reasons she'd been avoiding him since morning.
“To cut to the chase··· she rejected me right away, though.”
“······Oh.”
Lee Sol let out a small exclamation of surprise.
I had no idea when she'd brought them out, but she was chewing on snacks and had become an attentive audience member for the romance story.
When I glared at her, Lee Sol cautiously gauged my reaction.
“···Am I not supposed to do this?”
“······.”
When I said nothing, Lee Sol covered her mouth with her hand.
“Got it. I'll keep quiet.”
I turned back toward the client.
“···Could you continue?”
“Uh··· sure.”
He seemed slightly taken aback, but continued speaking.
“Honestly, I can accept being rejected since I still don't plan to give up on her···.”
So he hadn't given up.
“The problem is that she says she's quitting the club now.”
I hadn't known that.
The situation was becoming even more absurd.
Lee Sol raised an eyebrow when she heard that.
“···She's got a really fiery personality.”
I lightly pinched her forearm.
“Ah···! Got it, I really won't say anything···!”
···Did I recruit this one for nothing?
Jinuri's concern resurfaced in my mind for no particular reason.
“Ahem, shall I continue?”
“···Yeah.”
Kang Han-sol was impressive in his own way. Even in this situation, he stubbornly continued saying what he had to say.
“······Anyway. I want to stop her from leaving the club somehow. I came to see if there was any good way to do that.”
Hard to say.
This wasn't a problem that could be solved simply by holding Jinuri back.
It was a much more complicated matter than Kang Han-sol knew.
······.
Ten or so minutes passed after Kang Han-sol left.
A second client arrived without anyone else knowing.
Kim Su-jin, a second-year from the band club.
“There's someone I like in the same club··· but I think he likes someone else.”
She looked at us earnestly.
“Isn't there anything we can do?”
Kang Han-sol liked Jinuri.
Kim Su-jin liked Kang Han-sol.
Jinuri was trying to quit the club because she couldn't stand it anymore.
···This was why I'd called it complicated.
“······.”
“······.”
Lee Sol's and my gazes met for several seconds.
“······Could this be?”
At Lee Sol's suspicion, I kept my mouth shut.
She caught on far too quickly.
“······.”
Had that silence served as an answer instead?
Lee Sol wore a faint smile.
She leaned close and whispered in a voice only I could hear.
“The counseling club is freaking fun.”