Chapter 69
* * *
Ha Seorim felt her heart pounding as she walked down the hallway.
‘Wow, that startled me···.’
Lee Seungho had suddenly appeared in front of her, startling her.
She already had no tolerance for jump scares, and the unexpected encounter had put a strain on her heart.
‘How did I run into him here, of all places?’
Even if this was a karaoke place near the school, still.
This was already the second time today.
Fortunately, he didn’t seem to have noticed her. Was it because he had dyed his hair?
“Hey, Ha Seorim, where are you going?! Our room’s here!”
An Boram called out to Ha Seorim.
“Ah.”
Only then did her steps come to a stop.
She must have been too lost in thought. She had kept walking without even realizing she had reached the room.
If her friend hadn’t called her, she would have walked all the way onward.
“···.”
···Whatever. Let’s not worry about it.
Ha Seorim soon dismissed it. It was only a chance encounter, after all.
Unless she deliberately went looking for him, there was no chance they would meet.
Letting a brief encounter bother her was a losing proposition.
“Oh, right.”
An Boram set her bag down on the sofa, then
whipped her head around.
Wondering what it was about, Ha Seorim looked at her.
“Don’t we need to ask about that soon? Who’s going to ask?”
“···Ask about what?”
Ha Seorim tilted her head.
She had no idea what An Boram meant.
“No, you know, that thing.”
An Boram, apparently frustrated, gestured this way and that with her hands.
“The thing we talked about last time. You said we’d try doing it ourselves.”
“Oh, making a club?”
“Yeah, that.”
You could have just said so from the start.
“Once finals are over, the first semester will end, too.”
Under the pretext of giving first-years time to adjust, establishing clubs had been prohibited for the entire semester,
but summer vacation was just around the corner.
Ha Seorim planned to leave her current band club and start a new one.
Music-related clubs could be created in any number, even if there were already clubs in the same field.
As long as you had the connections, it wasn’t particularly difficult.
There was just one thing.
If there was a problem···.
“We need to get a guitarist, so you said you’d ask Senior Jinuri.”
As An Boram had said,
they didn’t have a guitarist.
Ha Seorim played bass, An Boram keyboard, and their male friend Jin Hyeonwoo drums.
“But are we sure that’s okay? Didn’t you say that senior was in another club?”
“I told you that last time, too. Weren’t you listening?”
An Boram narrowed her eyes. It was an accusatory look.
“···Huh? Did you?”
Ha Seorim asked back in surprise. She didn’t remember hearing that.
No matter how hard she racked her brain, nothing came to mind.
She felt as though she had, and as though she hadn’t.
“I said there was no problem under the rules.”
Apparently, joining multiple clubs simultaneously wasn’t a problem.
Of course, it would make things that much harder physically, but apparently that was for the individual to handle.
“We’re just asking once. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.”
“Then since we’re thinking of it, we can just ask tomorrow.”
At Ha Seorim’s words, both of them fell silent. An Boram and Jin Hyeonwoo alike.
They glanced at each other.
Jin Hyeonwoo scratched his head.
“Ah··· It’s kind of awkward to ask···. Isn’t it awkward to approach her?”
“Hmm.”
Ha Seorim nodded as if she understood.
Well, Senior Jinuri did give off an intimidating impression.
From a distance, she always had an expressionless face, after all.
“Come on, don’t chicken out over something like that.”
An Boram grinned when she saw this.
“···.”
There was no answer.
Even as Jin Hyeonwoo narrowed his eyes, he didn’t respond at all.
He was incredibly timid in situations like this.
“Fine. I’ll ask her tomorrow.”
An Boram raised her voice for no particular reason.
Then she subtly clung to Ha Seorim.
“···Seorim. You’ll come with me, right??”
It was a little absurd, and a small sigh escaped her.
“Sure.”
Ha Seorim nodded.
It wasn’t particularly difficult, after all.
It probably wouldn’t be a big deal.
* * *
“Phew···.”
Jinuri entered her room, vigorously towel-drying her wet hair.
Steam rose in wisps from her milky-white skin.
As expected, taking a bath after going out to have fun was the best.
Jinuri flopped down on her bed.
She had made the most of her day. A satisfied smile kept creeping across her face.
‘It was fun.’
Maybe it was because it had been a karaoke outing for the first time in a while.
She usually went alone. Maybe going with the others was why.
It had felt different, too.
“···Yaaawn.”
A languid yawn escaped her. Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes.
Her eyelids felt incredibly heavy.
‘Did I eat too much···?’
Jinuri’s eyes blinked slowly. Drowsiness after a meal was creeping over her.
Her stomach was full, her body warm, and the blanket cool yet cozy.
It was the perfect environment for falling asleep.
‘I still need to get through today’s practice···.’
She had to do her daily instrumental practice, which she couldn’t afford to skip.
She couldn’t fall asleep yet.
“Nngh···!”
With a cry of determination, she forced herself upright.
Once she was up, she felt even more drained.
“Good grief.”
What could she do? Even if she didn’t want to, she had to do it.
Jinuri accepted that and trudged over to her desk.
“Hmm···.”
She tapped at her phone, wondering what to practice today.
‘A lot of people are doing NewTube or TikTok these days.’
There seemed to be a lot of that type among solo guitarists.
They covered their faces and uploaded short performance videos.
Besides that,
there were cosplay performances, too.
“Hmm. Hmmm.”
The outfits were a little embarrassing,
but it was an attempt at exploring a new realm in its own way.
···Was this kind of thing trendy these days?
‘···Should I try uploading one, too?’
She was confident about cosplay. The same went for her playing.
If she uploaded it without revealing too much.
“Yaaawn···.”
Jinuri opened her mouth wide. Her eyelids slowly drooped.
“···.”
This wouldn’t do.
She needed to practice today’s quota and go to sleep.
‘Is there anything manageable?’
She scrolled through Instagram to check current trends.
‘···Oh, this.’
She found that Shin Ayoung had uploaded an Instagram story. It was the scene from the karaoke room.
Wondering what she had posted, Jinuri played it.
“Whoa···.”
An exclamation escaped her the moment the video started. Her sleepiness vanished.
It was a video of Lee Seungho singing with Shin Ayoung, but his voice in particular stood out sharply to her ears.
He was trying hard, squeezing his eyes shut and singing his best.
“···.”
Seeing that, she burst out laughing. She ended up chuckling to herself.
He really was terrible at singing,
but it was nice to see him trying so hard.
‘···If I have time later, should I at least teach him the basics?’
Jinuri liked the video and stretched.
“Ahem.”
She supposed she could do that if she went to karaoke with Seungah. It might not be so bad.
“Ah.”
I should practice.
Now that she was awake, she felt like she could do it comfortably.
* * *
The Sports Day was over, and finals were truly right around the corner now.
“···.”
Isol was staring blankly down at her test paper. Her pencil refused to move.
She struggled and wrestled with the letters.
— “This is so haaard···.”
In the end, her Minimi whined with a dejected expression.
It trudged over,
then sprawled facedown across my worksheet. It looked like a protest.
‘Her concentration’s tapped out.’
I checked the time. She had definitely lasted longer than before. For Isol, this was a real effort.
“Let’s take a ten-minute break.”
“!”
— “!”
Isol and her Minimi raised their eyebrows at the same time.
They wore expressions that said this was the best news they’d heard all day.
“Nngh——!”
Isol stretched long and then went limp on the sofa.
I looked beside her. Isol wasn’t the only one studying with me. Shin Ayoung was studying with us, too.
She kept marking her work with a ballpoint pen, scratching away.
She drew circles with a red pen.
After grading the final question,
“···.”
Shin Ayoung looked down at it, her face slightly surprised.
“···I got them all right.”
Shin Ayoung muttered absently.
Looking at it, that really was the case. There wasn’t a single slash.
It was covered entirely in red circles.
“I got them all right.”
She said it again as she looked at me, proudly holding out her test paper.
— “I wonder if there’s, um, something···?”
Her Minimi waved its arms excitedly.
I slowly blinked as I watched it.
···What did she want?
I rummaged through my pockets, but I didn’t have anything to give her.
“Oh, you’re pretty good.”
I offered her a small compliment.
“Heheh. I am.”
She smiled faintly and straightened her back, accepting it as though it were only natural.
— “···Ahem.”
Her Minimi, on the other hand, was covering its face with its hands. Its embarrassment was obvious.
After being shy like that,
it suddenly looked at me with sparkling eyes.
— “But you really are good at teaching. Since you notice exactly where I make mistakes, it’s easy to correct them.”
Her Minimi’s help had played a large part in that.
I awkwardly cleared my throat for no reason.
“Ah, seriously···!”
Just then, a loud voice came from inside the counseling room.
Senior Minji came out, huffing angrily. She had a workbook in one hand.
But that lasted only a moment.
“Haa······.”
Her face turned gloomy. She went from angry to depressed, her mood swinging back and forth.
— “Why am I so stupid?”
Her Minimi became pessimistic.
“It’s okay, Minji. Come on, let’s go get some air for a bit.”
The club president comforted Senior Minji.
“We’ll go to the school store.”
“Okay, have a nice trip.”
As usual, I nodded calmly.
It seemed better to act natural than to wear an obviously worried expression.
“W-what···?”
Isol, who had been sprawled on the sofa, sat bolt upright in surprise.
Her Minimi also darted its gaze back and forth like a meerkat in the direction the seniors had gone.
“They’re third-years. Time must be starting to feel tight for them.”
“Ah···.”
Isol nodded as if she understood.
Finals were coming soon, after all.
It was June, so there were roughly 150 days left until the CSAT.
They didn’t have enough time to study, but their grades weren’t coming out as well as they wanted, so they must have been stressed.
“They’ll probably stay like that for a while. We’ll have to keep handling the counseling ourselves, too.”
At the beginning of the semester, the new members, Isol and Jinuri, had often stopped by the clubroom because they needed to adjust,
but that would decrease now.
Eventually, we’d probably have to get by among ourselves.
Knock knock—!
Just then, a small knocking sound rang out.
“? Did we have counseling today?”
“Hmm···.”
Isol pondered, then shook her head from side to side.
“···Not that I remember.”
As far as I knew, that was true.
“Yes, come in—”
I raised my voice toward the outside. For now, I invited them in.
I could simply ask them once they came in.
Rattle— The clubroom door slid open.
“Excuse me.”
“Hello···.”
Two girls timidly walked into the clubroom. They wore white name tags. First-years.
— “---?!”
One of their Minimis suddenly emitted a faint burst of noise. It had been startled.
“?”
The unusual thing was that it had happened when she saw me.
What could it be?
Curious about the strange reaction, I examined her closely.
“Uh, um···.”
The platinum-blond girl rolled her eyes and avoided my gaze. Her expression was difficult to read.
“What’s going on?”
“Is Senior Jinuri here?”
The other girl asked.
“Just a moment?”
I called out to Jinuri, who was nodding off in the back.
“Hey, Jinuri, someone’s looking for you.”
“Uh, huh?”
She slowly opened her eyes and stretched long.
“Yaaawn··· What is it?”
“I don’t know.”
I had already heard everything through the Minimi, but I said that.
Besides, there was something more concerning than that right now.
— “Ah, seriously, what’s wrong with me···? She still doesn’t seem to know. I won’t get caught, will I?”
The platinum-blond girl’s Minimi muttered.
I narrowed my eyes as I looked at her.
I felt a strange sense of incongruity.
‘Someone I’ve seen a lot···.’
···Ah.
My body suddenly went rigid.
I remembered.
Back in middle school, there had been a younger student who was close with the girl I’d had a thing with.
I hadn’t recognized her right away because her hair color had changed.
Compared to then, she had grown taller, and her features had changed quite a bit.
‘···Ha Seorim.’
Looking at the girl in front of me, I recalled that name.
A name I was thinking of for the first time in a very long while.
It wasn’t as though she had done anything wrong,
but once I recalled her, I ended up feeling a little awkward.
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(Reference illustration of Jinuri with her usual expressionless face)