Chapter 32
***
The school trip ended, and the following Monday arrived.
After classes, I headed to the clubroom with Lee Sol.
“We’re here.”
I opened the door lightly and saw two people inside the clubroom.
The club president and vice president.
“Ah~”
Senior Minji was sitting on the club president’s lap and trying to feed him a piece of chocolate.
The moment I heard that coquettish voice,
I slid the door shut again with a screech—.
“···.”
···To think I had to see something like that first thing on a Monday morning.
“!?”
Crash.
I heard a commotion from inside.
···This should be long enough.
“···.”
After a short wait, I opened the door again, and the two flustered people were standing in front of it.
“No, it’s not like that···!”
“Ahem, ahem···!”
They looked as though they were trying to come up with various excuses.
— “But I locked it!?”
Senior Minji’s mini-me reflected on her mistake.
She showed no sign of remorse whatsoever.
She looked more like she was wondering what she should do next.
“···.”
I briefly inspected the clubroom door handle.
Aha.
It was broken.
The lock button had rusted and grown loose. There was no way it could have locked properly like that.
Senior Minji had been fooling around without even checking that.
I lightly tapped the door.
“This thing seems to be broken.”
“Ah.”
A short cry came back from inside.
— “···.”
Senior Minji’s mini-me glared at it as though she had been wronged.
Even though it was her own fault.
I spoke firmly to the two of them.
“Even if there’s no teacher or anyone else in the clubroom right now, please refrain from being affectionate in here.”
“B-but that much is okay when no one’s around···! You can use it like that when you’re a third-year too···!”
Senior Minji argued back, sweating profusely.
Well, then.
That was a rather absurd thing to say.
“···.”
But.
It might actually be kind of nice.
“Don’t change your tune later.”
“Huh? Do you have someone you’re seeing?”
Senior Minji covered her mouth with both hands, apparently jumping to a small conclusion.
— “···?!”
Sol’s mini-me was startled too, fidgeting with both hands.
I knew what she was worried about, but.
“···No. I might have someone soon.”
That hadn’t happened yet.
I just meant that, even if it wasn’t for anything romantic, it would be nice to have a place to use when no one else was around.
“Ah··· What a letdown. Boring.”
The sparkle in Senior Minji’s eyes vanished in an instant, and her expression calmly settled.
That was a strange reaction.
Was this person really pickled in dopamine?
···That brief commotion soon subsided.
The club president quietly returned to his original seat and began working on some paperwork.
Perhaps there had been counseling sessions while we were on the school trip; he was writing up the report.
“···.”
With nothing to do all of a sudden, Senior Minji slumped down in her chair.
Her eyes rolled around, and then.
She began subtly eyeing my bag.
“Hmm···.”
— “···Did he not buy anything?”
Senior Minji’s mini-me sat in her seat and swung her foot back and forth.
She was clearly waiting for a gift.
Of course, I had bought something. They had given me souvenirs last year, after all.
I had suddenly lost the desire to give them anything after what had just happened···.
But since I had bought them anyway.
I took two boxes of chocolate out of my bag. They were nama chocolates, the kind people buy when they travel to Japan.
“Here are your souvenirs.”
I handed one to each of them.
The two of them eagerly accepted them, their faces lighting up.
Apparently, they had been expecting them.
“I’ll enjoy it.”
“Ahem. You didn’t have to go out of your way to buy them.”
The club president held his box calmly, while the vice president held hers nonchalantly.
— “Sluuurp···.”
Unlike Senior Minji’s outwardly indifferent reaction, her mini-me was drooling profusely.
The mini-me who had been sulking just moments ago quickly broke into a silly grin.
What an easy person.
Meanwhile—
“Hwaa—”
Sol was sprawled out straight on the sofa.
The usual Sol.
Once she came to school, she had returned to her usual idle state. Judging by her expression, her annoyance meter was full.
Maybe she had a case of the Monday blues.
I sat down on the sofa opposite her and leaned back.
At that moment, the club president gave me a puzzled look.
“By the way, where are the other two?”
Right.
I had originally planned to mention it as soon as I arrived.
I had forgotten because I’d seen something so shocking.
“Nuri said she couldn’t come because she was going to practice today.”
I think she said she hadn’t been able to play guitar lately, so she was going to borrow one of the school’s practice rooms.
I handed the paper I was holding to the club president.
“Here’s the statement explaining her absence.”
“Oh.”
It was the excuse I had brought on her behalf.
Club activities were mandatory at our school.
Unless there were exams or some special circumstance, we had to submit an excuse like this.
It was a little tedious to write one, but the school wasn’t particularly strict about it. Everyone just filled one out.
Senior Minji tilted her head to the side.
“Then what about A-young?”
At that question, I opened my eyes into crescent moons.
···What was she talking about?
“She isn’t even in the counseling club.”
“···Ah.”
Senior Minji parted her lips slightly.
“Right, she wasn’t?”
She gave an awkward little cough.
She must have subconsciously come to think of A-young as a club member because she visited so often.
“Nom.”
Senior Minji popped one of the nama chocolates I had bought as souvenirs into her mouth and said,
Chew, chew—
“—Come to think of it, speaking of A-young reminded me. You know actor Shin Jinseop?”
I paused slightly.
I sensed something odd in Senior Minji’s words and turned my head.
“···Why ‘actor’?”
Unless it was a formal occasion, didn’t people usually just call celebrities by their names?
Senior Minji pulled her chin in slightly.
She narrowed her eyes and made an enigmatic expression.
“···Since he’s the parent of someone I know, it feels a little strange to just call him by his name.”
···That.
She was definitely right.
That was something I hadn’t considered.
I fell into thought for a moment, wondering what I should call him.
“Let’s just call him A-young’s father.”
“Oh, should we?”
Ahem—.
Senior Minji gave a small false cough before continuing what she had originally meant to say.
“Anyway, you know A-young’s father? I heard he’s releasing a new project this time.”
“A new project? A drama?”
“Yeah, apparently it’s already a hotly anticipated show. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Senior Minji tapped on her phone with an excited look on her face.
“Should I ask A-young to get me his autograph later?”
Even though only the trailer had been released, it had already attracted considerable attention.
“Shin A-young is going to have a hard time.”
I muttered softly as I watched her.
The repercussions were easy to predict.
“Huh? What?”
Senior Minji looked as though she had no idea what I meant.
“What? Well···.”
My lips stopped moving for a moment.
Come to think of it.
Until now, I had been the only one who knew that she spent her time acting.
Lately, her inner and outer selves had become almost identical in the clubroom, so I hadn’t thought of it.
I subtly changed the subject.
“···I thought she might feel burdened if everyone’s attention turned toward her at school.”
“Huh? Wasn’t A-young the type to enjoy that sort of thing?”
···Hmm.
I rose from my seat and said,
“Probably not as much as you think.”
She was extremely conscious of the eyes around her.
From Shin A-young’s perspective, it wouldn’t be a very welcome development.
“···.”
I rummaged through the snack shelf.
I felt like having some Korean snacks for the first time in a while.
I had spent nearly the entire weekend sleeping like the dead, so I hadn’t had a chance to eat anything like this.
“Give me just one bite.”
Sol, who had been lying facedown on the sofa, raised her head.
— “Is he going to give me a bite···?”
Her mini-me watched me expectantly, eyes bright and eager.
Rustle···.
Sol sat up on the sofa and reached out a small hand.
···Was getting up really that much trouble?
I sat in the empty spot that had naturally opened up and handed a snack to Sol beside me.
“Mm.”
— “— — —Yeah.”
Her mini-me’s voice was mixed with a little static.
She chewed the snack happily, the corners of her mouth lifting in satisfaction.
I figured she had roughly said, ‘Tasty.’
“···.”
Senior Minji watched the scene silently before murmuring lightly,
“You two got really close after coming back from the school trip, huh?”
At that, Sol stopped chewing and made a breathless sound.
“···We were already close.”
She refuted it as calmly as she could.
“No, you weren’t like this before you left, were you?”
We weren’t like this before?
That was something I was curious about too.
“What were we like before?”
“Just friends?”
“And now?”
“Really close friends. It’s obvious you’ve both become comfortable with each other.”
“···.”
···How should I put it?
It was a little different from what Senior Minji thought.
But I could see how it might look that way to someone else.
What people saw was another matter, after all.
“···Really?”
At that, Sol’s shoulders, which had been tense, lowered slightly as though she were relieved.
It was the reaction of someone glad that her feelings hadn’t been exposed.
— “I shouldn’t have made that bet last time···!”
Sol’s mini-me had a miserable expression on her face.
···Come to think of it, they had made that bet. Was it the wish ticket?
The two mini-mes chattered away busily.
“···.”
They seemed to get along well.
— “I’m glad the club members have gotten so close. We really won’t have to worry about next year, will we?”
— “···Minji unni absolutely cannot find out.”
···Of course.
They were thinking completely different things.