Chapter 241 (2/2)

“Okay, wait just a moment. Dowook, Bangjoo. Are you two okay with ice cream?”

Both of them nodded.

“Oh yes, seonbae-nim. I saw that the container box was open…,” Jiyoon inquired nervously.

“That? I opened it on purpose. The inside was too hot. We have to check on the props in the afternoon but I thought it would get too hot if I just left them like that, so I left it open just a little.”

“Oh, that’s it,” Jiyoon smiled as she said that. Her cheeks dimpled slightly. Daemyung absent-mindedly watched as Jiyoon brushed her hair away from her eyebrows with her hand before flinching. Aram had a suspicious smile on her face.

“M, ma’am!”

Daemyung quickly turned around and ordered the items. His heart was racing. He was worried that Jiyoon might think strange of him and turned around, but fortunately, Aram was talking to Jiyoon like normal. He wondered if he saw wrongly. He sighed and turned around after getting the items from the lady.

“Here you go.”

He handed out the milk and the ice cream. He subconsciously smiled when Jiyoon received her ice cream with her two hands. Of course, he soon came to himself and looked away. After all, Jiyoon might feel uncomfortable if some misunderstandings occurred.

“I, I don’t see Maru anywhere. I thought he was going to the cafeteria.”

“Maru-seonbae was in class though.”

“In class? In my class?”

“Yes.”

Daemyung was curious about why these two went to the 2nd year electric engineering class, but did not ask. He didn’t want to be nosy.

While others chatted, Daemyung sneaked out. He had to lock up the container.

“Seonbae-nim. Where are you going?”

Jiyoon had caught up already.

“To go to the container. You don’t need to follow me. You should go back to class and get some rest.”

“No, I’ll help you,” saying that, Jiyoon quietly followed him. She was really kind. Daemyung felt proud since he felt that he had a good junior. At the same time, a sense of duty to show them his good side as her senior welled up inside him.

“Oh, seonbae-nim. It’s a little weird to call you... club president, right?”

“Y, you can just call me however you want. It’s not like being the club president is anything special. You can call me whatever you’re comfortable with.”

“R, right? Then, seonbae….nim is a little too weird, right? I’ll call you just seonbae in the future. A, are you okay with that?”

“Y, yeah! Call me whatever you’re comfortable with. I don’t care at all.”

Jiyoon smiled back at him.

“Uhm, seonbae.”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for last time. I thought I didn’t get to thank you properly. Sorry about that.”

“Not at all. Rather than that, you look okay now. You are much brighter than before.”

“R, really?”

“Yeah,” after replying, Daemyung uttered a short breath. This was the first time he talked to a girl like this outside of practice. He became nervous and quickened his steps. He did this so that they could arrive at the container before they ran out of things to talk about.

However, not long later, he had to slow down. Jiyoon, who was following him, was panting. He walked by her side and the two walked to the back of the school. They did not say a single word as they walked. Daemyung was very uneasy, but Jiyoon had a calm - and perhaps a little joyful- expression. It seemed as though something good had happened to her today.

“Huh? Why is it wide open?”

Arriving at the container, Daemyung wondered why it was wide open. He remembered opening it just a little.

“Is it because of the wind?”

“It wasn’t like that when we came around.”

Jiyoon tilted her head as well. Daemyung took another step forward towards the orange-colored container. At that moment, a strong wind blew on his face.

“...!”

The wind contained a disgusting smell. It was the smell of paint. Not just any paint, but the waterproof paint that Maru bought. Jiyoon seemed to have smelled the stench of burning rubber as well and frowned.

“Can you take a step back?”

“Seonbae!”

Daemyung made Jiyoon step back just in case anything happened. He covered his nose and walked forward. As he walked forward, the sunlight that covered the entrance of the container was lifted, showing what the inside looked like. Daemyung frowned and walked into the container.

“What is all….”

It was green everywhere. No, some places had spray paint on as well. The problem was that some costumes and props were covered in paint as well. Daemyung coughed and first took out the costume within his reach. When it was exposed to the sunlight, its horrible condition could be seen. Even though it was a denim jacket, half of it was colored green. The white mourning clothes had black paint everywhere. From those alone, it was clear that everything was messed up.

“Seonbae….”

Jiyoon’s expression paled in fright and she covered her mouth. She should have been surprised as well. Someone clearly did this with malicious intent. Daemyung first took out his phone. He then pressed his shortcut key. After some signalling sounds, Maru’s voice could be heard over the phone. Daemyung cut Maru mid way through his question and spoke hurriedly.

“Maru! Come down to the container quickly!”

* * *

A burden. This referred to a heavy load carried by a person. When something refreshing happened, it is expressed as ‘a heavy burden was lifted off one’s shoulders’. Geunseok realized what that felt like today. He really felt refreshed. No, he was thrilled. The glee when he found out that there was no one behind school, the feeling of awe when he saw that the container was open, as well as the excitement of finding paint inside. Geunseok opened the paint containers rapidly and poured it out on everything he saw. He was unable to contain his smile while watching the green paint draw a perfect parabola into every object inside the container. As he watched the props getting tainted, those bastards popped into his head, and a feeling of triumph welled up inside him when he thought about how Maru would never catch the culprit.

Fire was dangerous. He was a man with common sense. He had to finish things on a level that wouldn’t get him into big trouble even if he was found out. In that sense, paint was perfect for the job. It made all the objects useless after all. On top of that, there was that stench. Although it would soon go away since it was volatile, they wouldn’t be able to use the container for the time being. He was so happy because he could pressure them like this.

“Did something good happen to you?”

The girl next to him asked. It was a girl with long straight hair. She tied it up when she came to school to avoid the eyes of the head-of-the-year teacher, but she untied them once she was in class. Geunseok inwardly liked this girl since she looked more mature than her peers.

“Do I look like it?”

“Yeah.”

The girl giggled. She clearly had good feelings towards him.

Geunseok smiled.

Today was the best.

In Korea, both ‘soft ice cream’ and ‘popsicles’ are called ‘ice cream’ (Though, some regions call popsicles ‘ha-d’(하드), which is derived from “hard” ice cream or ‘ice ke--ki’(아이스께끼), derived from the Japanese pronunciation of ‘ice cake’(アイスケーキ) ). They’re probably getting popsicles here, but I don’t know for sure. I will translate all ice cream(아이스크림) into ice cream in the future unless specified otherwise.