Chapter 5
***
Once I got home, my stress-heated head had cooled a little.
Only then did everything that had happened earlier begin to fall into place.
— ‘...Hey, you fucking bastard. I told you I wasn't going to say anything.’
That included the memory of me swearing, too.
Drip—A little sweat trickled down.
Maybe I'd gone a little too far.
“Did you get into trouble?”
It was my little sister, who had been lying on the sofa.
She glanced over at me and asked.
“No?”
Since simply admitting it would hurt my pride, I calmly denied it.
“No? You look exactly like someone who got punched.”
While looking at her phone and tapping her toes, she calmly hit the nail on the head.
‘...She can't even read minds, so how does she keep noticing things so well?’
She's my little sister, but the more I look at her, the less I understand her.
“I keep telling you to control that temper of yours.”
It was something I couldn't deny.
“......Yeah.”
I gave a short answer and went into my room.
Who knows.
I'll think about tomorrow when tomorrow comes.
***
“...What happened first thing in the morning?”
The moment I arrived in class, I saw my classmates bustling around.
They were each dragging their desks and changing places in orderly fashion.
“The seats were rearranged by number. The teacher posted the list at the front of the blackboard.”
“Really?”
At the words of a kid who looked like he was destined to be class president, I headed to the front of the blackboard.
Sure enough, a paper showing the new seating assignments was posted there.
“Let's see...... Mine's toward the back by the window......”
When I turned toward that spot, I saw a familiar silhouette.
‘......You guys again.’
Shin A-young, Jinuri, and Lee Sol.
They were the trio from my group assignment.
The seats had been arranged by number, and by coincidence, numbers 16, 17, 18, and 19 belonged to them and me.
Maybe it was because our surnames came consecutively in Korean alphabetical order.
“......”
It couldn't be helped.
I dragged my desk over there.
“Hi, Seung-ho.”
Seeing me arrive, Shin A-young waved with her usual expression.
She was putting on that fresh, lively expression.
— “The seating arrangement isn't bad.”
Her thoughts were... she wasn't exactly badmouthing me.
That was a relief.
“Oh. Yeah.”
I returned Shin A-young's greeting casually, then sat down.
‘Still, this is less intense than yesterday.’
Since Shin A-young's seat was diagonally behind me, I occasionally felt her gaze, but it wasn't like she was staring excessively.
All she did was glance at me briefly while turning her head elsewhere.
“......”
On the other hand.
Jinuri, who sat beside me, had been acting strange since morning.
She rolled her eyes, then whipped her head around. Every so often, she even glanced out the window.
— “Ah, fuck... This is so awkward first thing in the morning.”
What was going on?
Anyway, she was being extremely self-conscious.
She looked like a typical tough girl, but apparently she had this side to her, too.
‘...Did something happen to her, too?’
Just as I was lost in thought.
Jinuri covered her mouth with one hand and called to me in a whisper.
“...Hey.”
“...What?”
Why was she calling me like that?
Was there really something going on?
“No... Are you okay? Or should I ask the teacher to let you change seats?”
I scratched the back of my neck at her baffling question.
“? What about?”
“Why did you confess to A-young in the first place...?”
“?”
Who did what? Me?
Since when had I become someone who'd confessed at the start of the new semester?
......Ah, no way.
Was this because I'd called Shin A-young aside yesterday?
If that was the misunderstanding she'd made, she was seriously mistaken.
“I don't know what you're talking about, but it's not that.”
“Ah.”
Jinuri let out a short exclamation.
The Mini-Me on her desk began chattering.
— “...Come to think of it, A-young always kept quiet about all the confessions she got from other kids. So that's the arrangement they made.”
Did that mean she was pretending my confession had never happened?
‘So that's why rumors strangely never spread.’
Everyone had assumed, consciously or not, that Shin A-young had received a confession. There were almost never any rumors going around about someone getting rejected.
“Yeah, yeah. Big sis'll buy you a Choco Mong later.”
This girl clearly thought I'd been rejected.
“......”
Hmm, but.
‘I can't say no to free Choco Mong.’
Letting her believe whatever she wanted and getting a Choco Mong out of it was a pretty good deal.
***
“Club activities are resuming starting today, so keep that in mind.”
Since Myeonghwa High was an arts high school, its clubs were more active than those at other schools.
We were also required to participate in extracurricular activities.
If I had to compare it to anything, it was probably similar to schools in Japan.
Naturally, I belonged to a club, too.
[Counseling Club]
It might seem like a club suited to my aptitude, but I had joined for a different reason.
The sign hanging above the clubroom door was crooked.
“I'm here.”
As I entered the clubroom, I saw the members inside.
Two seniors who were now third-years.
The two had been glued together until I arrived, then sprang apart at the sound of the door opening.
Seeing them being lovey-dovey first thing in the morning made me feel rather uncomfortable.
“Ahem, ahem! Oh, you're here? Good timing—we had something to tell you.”
“What kind of juice do you want?”
“...Orange, please.”
This was why I'd joined this club.
I liked that there was plenty to eat whenever I came to the clubroom.
“Here you go.”
“Thank you.”
I accepted the cup she handed me and sat down on the sofa. Soon afterward, the club president broached the subject.
“We've got one piece of good news and one piece of bad news. Which do you want to hear first?”
What could possibly be going on right after I arrived?
“...Usually when people say that, it's mostly bad news.”
“Anyway, which one first?”
“If I had to choose, the bad news first.”
Rather than hear good news first and then feel bad after hearing the bad news,
I thought it would be better to get some consolation from good news while already feeling bad.
“The bad news is...”
— “Our club might be shut down.”
“What? Really?”
“...I haven't said it yet. Don't react before I finish.”
“Ah.”
I was so surprised that my reaction came out first.
“Yes, please, continue.”
“Ahem.”
The club president cleared their throat and resumed their serious demeanor.
“Our club might be shut down.”
“...Wow, really?”
I squeezed out as big a reaction as I could.
But.
That was all I had.
I'd already been surprised the first time, so I couldn't be any more surprised than that.
When I awkwardly let my mouth hang open, the two of them shot me sullen looks.
“I told you, there's no point doing that with him. It won't be fun.”
“Exactly.”
“......”
I felt bad despite not meaning to cause that.
I didn't want that either.
Still, what could I do? I could hear their thoughts in advance.
“Anyway, we're in trouble right from the start this year. It's just the three of us now that our seniors have graduated.”
“Now that you mention it, you're right.”
The minimum number of members needed to keep a club running was four.
They were short by exactly one person.
If so, it wasn't a major problem.
“Then the good news is that we still have a chance to recruit a first-year this time.”
“Exactly. You're quick on the uptake.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
I had merely read the club president's thoughts.
“What are we planning to do?”
The club president handed me a stack of papers.
Flip-flip—When I turned the pages with my fingertips, I found a fairly painstakingly designed poster.
Had they made this in the meantime?
“Minji made it.”
That was the girl standing beside the club president.
They were dating, too.
“Artists really are different.”
Having a capable person on the team certainly made things convenient.
“We'll advertise at the main gate, so all you have to do is put these flyers up on the bulletin boards on each floor.”
“Got it.”
“Put them somewhere people can see them?!”
“Yes~”
······
A week passed after that.
“We're screwed.”
“......”
The clubroom was filled with a gloomy atmosphere.
In conclusion, not a single first-year had joined the Counseling Club.
I knew it was an unpopular club, but I hadn't realized it was this bad.
Its only real attractions were snacks and board games.
Those two things had been purchased with money pooled by the supervising teacher and club members—in other words, they were practically contraband.
We couldn't exactly advertise them at a public event like a club recruitment drive.
‘I only joined because I already knew things like that were here.’
There was no way the other first-years could know.
“If the club gets shut down, what happens to us?”
“We'll have to join another club, I suppose.”
That would be a problem.
There wasn't another club as good for goofing off as this one.
Wasn't there any other way?
Maybe poach members from other clubs...
“There is one student left. Want to meet them?”
The Counseling Club's faculty advisor, Ms. Min Ha-ram, who had been listening to our conversation, brought that up.
There was someone left?
But.
“Haven't all the first-years already submitted their applications?”
The club application period lasted one week from the first day of the new semester.
Today marked exactly one week, so there shouldn't have been any first-years left.
At that question,
“That's because they're not a first-year.”
the teacher replied.
“They're a second-year who was exempted because of their modeling work, but has to join a club starting this year. I called them here because I needed to discuss that with them anyway. Want to meet them?”
“......Hmm?”
My brow furrowed slightly.
There weren't many students at our school who worked as models, after all.
Somehow, the idea sounded familiar......
Knock knock—
A small knock echoed from inside the counseling room.
“Speak of the devil—they're here right now. Come on in~”
The teacher let someone outside into the room.
Rattle.
When the door opened, a head with hair that was both pale and almost gray poked through the gap.
“Oh.”
A short exclamation escaped me before I knew it.
I knew that face.
Somehow, I had a feeling it would be her.
“...Hello.”
When she greeted us with a small bow,
I carefully spoke her name.
“Lee Sol."
“Hmm?”
At the voice calling her, she lifted her head.
Lee Sol's gaze met mine.
“......”
Her eyes slowly narrowed,
then she tilted her head to the side.
When about three or four seconds had passed.
“......Huh?”
Her eyes went round.
She parted her lips slightly, as if startled.
Her face said she hadn't expected to see me.
······This girl is slow to recognize people.