Chapter 10.5 - Act 10: D.C. 5 (1/2)

Act 10: D.C. 5

On the school website, there was a list of clubs and societies, and written on it were the names of clubs that were officially active.

I read it once when I was bored, during which an interesting fact was unveiled. It was that there were all sorts of societies in Future Performing Art High School.

There were sports clubs that appeared distant from performing arts, the Photography Society that Han Dasom was a part of, as well as a Movie Review Society which almost every school had.

Besides, since there was also one called a Magic Society, which I hadn’t even heard of before, it could be said that forming societies wasn’t on the difficult side.

However, that didn’t mean the school just let it be.

The school had a small number of students in the first place so if there were all sorts of societies without any restrictions, there would be clubs with one or two members, without even the ability to carry out any activities.

Thus, although it was easy to make societies, it was difficult to maintain it.

Plus, there were all sorts of documents that had to be handed in, the support funds were almost non-existent and the objective as well as financial plans had to be recorded down to a T. That was what I found out when I was trying to see if I could make a new opera society myself.

But that didn’t mean old societies and clubs would be supported unconditionally, and there were the so-called dying clubs. They either lacked members, had the management done carelessly or didn’t have any new members entering the club…

These societies would also become targets of administration and receive less support. That was the reason upperclassmen visited freshmen classes at the start of every semester and was also perhaps why they were here inside our class right now.

“Hello, dear freshmen juniors. I’m called Yun Soojin.”

As she, who had a blue name badge, gave a faint smile, I observed her with crossed arms. On the blue name badge which proved she was in third grade, her name Yun Soojin was written.

When I looked at her small, gently interlocked fingers, I didn’t see any signs of her having held strings and listening to her words, there weren’t any indications of her breath being trained either. She only leisurely continued with her words.

At a glance, she didn’t appear like she was from the Music Department.

She also didn’t seem to be from the Dancing Department, judging from how she didn’t have the bodyline unique to the Dancing Department, despite wearing a summer uniform.

But on the other hand, the male standing next to the girl called Yun Soojin was definitely someone that played a string instrument, evident from his fingers. More specifically, he was most likely a violinist.

The white calluses on the ends of his fingers were proof, and if he was a cellist, there should be some indication of it on his thumb as well, but I didn’t see it.

In any case, a Visual Art senior going around with a Music senior…

‘Quite unusual.’

As I was staring at their faces, a thought suddenly flashed past.

Right, those two – I remember seeing them during the first semester as well. Even though I ignored clubs and societies back then since I wasn’t interested, they must’ve remained in my memories due to the uniqueness.

I was in the midst of reviving old memories when Yun Soojin-sunbae’s words reached my ears.

“…Anyways, nice to meet you dear juniors. So, let me explain the objective of our society. We investigate the effect religion has on culture, called the Religion and Culture Research Society…”

While listening to the explanations given in a gentle voice that supplemented my boredom, I nodded my head.

Right, I remember being dumbfounded after hearing that bizarre name.

What in the world was the Religion and Culture Research Society?

It sounded like a mandatory university subject so who would ever want to join such a society? We would for sure die of boredom from all the boring speeches.

No wonder a third grader with graduation right before their eyes was personally going around to promote their society.

“Then specifically what kind of activities do you do?”

When my classmate asked with a quick raise of his hand, Yun Soojin-sunbae replied slowly.

“That’s a good question. Our society is fundamentally a research society so…”

“…”

“…and because of that, it has a lot of impact on the culture. We think cultural aspects like theatrical acts and music performances are included in that as well so we sometimes carry it out as an activity…”

I was listening while fighting back the urge to close my eyes before immediately frowning.

‘Wait.’

They do acts and music performances?

Isn’t that just a medley of everything then? Thinking that perhaps it might be a society that did whatever they wanted despite that name, I crossed my arms and faced the front.

‘Religion and Culture Research Society huh…’

Wait, now that I think about it… it felt like I heard of that name during the future.

‘…Song Mirae.’

It was a word she, who had later turned into a musical star, said.

“…”

I immediately shot out of my seat.

*

“…Sunbae.”

“Nn?”

Seeing the warm smile on Yun Soojin’s face, Lim Suhjoon pulled his hair out.

“I told you we shouldn’t say it like that; why did you! What in the world is Religion and Culture Research Society, like seriously! Who would want to enter after hearing that!?”

Lim Suhjoon despaired.

Every society was given one chance to promote their activities per semester, and using that precious opportunity, they went around the Freshmen classes including the last 10th class, but there wasn’t a single applicant.

Since they also couldn’t find any during the first semester, there were 0 people among the first graders. The society had zero new members and was in a serious situation.

Right, if there were, at the very least, a lot of second and third-graders, there would be some hope left over because they could somehow bring some in next year. But, the problem was that there weren’t many from the second and third-grades either.

There were only five in the second-grade and although there were four third-graders, none of them participated in activities except for Yun Soojin-sunbae.

In other words, the technical number of members was six, which was small enough that it could be shut down anytime.