Chapter 309 (1/2)
“Did something good happen?” Daemyung asked from the side.
“The shoot is over, apparently.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Congratulations.”
“I’m not the one that’s supposed to be congratulated.”
“But still, you participated in the movie. I think you’re worth congratulating,” Daemyung made a V with his fingers.
“Then you’ve done a movie, and now it’s a drama?”
“Both as extras though.”
“Hey, you still get to appear in them. It’s proof that you’re working your way up. Oh yeah, when’s the drama episode you shot before going on air?”
“They said that it’s done in a two-week interval, so probably today.”
“Looks like I should watch it then.”
“You don’t have to go out of your way to watch it. It’ll only be a brief appearance anyway.”
“You said you get hit, right?”
“Yup.”
Dojin, who was listening to the conversation from the side, spoke,
“First it’s a delinquent, and now you’re getting hit. When are you going to be the cool character?”
“I don’t know.”
While they were chatting, the class president entered the classroom and told everyone that there was no homeroom at the end of the day. As tomorrow was a full club activities day, there was no acting club practice today either. It was the perfect day to go home early and daze out while lying on his bed. Just as they left the classroom, a girl wearing a school uniform was waiting for them. It was none other than Yoojin. The boys in the class started whispering among themselves.
Maru approached Yoojin.
“There’s no practice today.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you here? Looking like that too.”
“Help us out a little.”
“With what?”
“The acting club at my school is practicing, and I want you to help. I’ve left the acting club, but I’m still their senior.”
“Now you’re confusing me even more. We don’t have anything to teach you guys. I mean, you guys are better than us.”
“No, for this specific instance, you guys are the perfect people for the job.”
What was this about? Maru tilted his head and stared at Yoojin.
“The play my school is preparing is ‘I’ve been really wronged’.”
* * *
“I told you. Isn’t that funny?”
A high-pitched tone entered his ears. Maru glanced at Yoojin, who was holding hands with Aram and Jiyoon with a bright smile on her face. This girl’s friendliness was fatal.
She had gotten close to the members of the acting club during the times she came to his school to watch them practice. The kind Jiyoon was the first one to be poached by her. Following that, Aram, who was on close terms with Jiyoon, went over to her side as well. Naturally, the only remaining first year, Bangjoo, started hanging out with her as well, and eventually, she was at the point where she was practically a member of their acting club.
Yoojin pinched Aram’s thighs while giggling. In front of them were Daemyung and Dowook. The entire acting club was going over to Bosung Girl’s High School right now. No, this was kidnapping. Maru thought that everyone here was having signs of Stockholm syndrome.
Maru shook his head when Yoojin grinned at him. An hour ago, when Yoojin asked him to come with her, he told her that he couldn’t be bothered. Indeed, he couldn’t be bothered. Actually, a bigger reason that he didn’t want to go was because of the fact that they were preparing the same play.
If two schools decided to do the same play in the acting competition, the judges would definitely drop one of them. The acting competition first held regional preliminaries and then finals in Seoul. If there were two of the same pieces, they would definitely drop one of them during the preliminaries. Was there a reason to help a competitor? Of course not. He was about to refuse Yoojin’s request but she turned to Daemyung for help instead.
Maru sighed as he looked outside the subway. He had taken Daemyung and ran for his life at that moment. Daemyung, who was grabbed by Yoojin, ended up accepting after hearing her story. A competition in good faith, he said; beautiful rivals, he said. Maru clutched his head and shook his head when Daemyung came to him with those words. He then looked towards Dowook, who hated doing things that he didn’t want to do, but he showed interest in the fact that Yoojin’s high school was Bosung ‘Girls’ High. Maru thought that he had to take a picture of him at that moment and send it to his sister, telling her that this was the true face of the boy she liked.
The first years accepted without any complaints at all. Maru clicked his tongue when the first years replied with the words ‘of course!’ in a cheerful voice when Yoojin asked them for help. It felt like the guest had become the master.
He told Daemyung that helping them might bring losses to their own acting club, but he replied that helping them out will be an opportunity to study as well, and that there wouldn’t be any problems. Following that, he confidently said that he had the confidence to win if they were doing the same play. Maru liked his ambitiousness, but he didn’t like variables, so he thought that Daemyung was a little complacent.
Despite that, he also smiled in one corner of his heart. This was what youth was about. How could he not smile when they helped out their friends just because they’re friends rather than considering the benefits?
That was why he raised the white flag and tagged along. He would be the one to slap them back into shape if they lost to Bosung Girls High during the competition itself.
* * *
“But are us boys allowed into a girls high school?” This question came up on Maru’s mind as he got off the subway. He looked at Yoojin.
“We’ll have to go in in secret.”
“What?”
“So, the fences next to the school gates are slightly lower than the fences in other places. We’ll go through there, so that we don’t get caught.”
“Hey hey. Pack up, everyone. Let’s go back.”
“I was joking! I already got permission.”
“How did you know if we’d be coming or not?”
“You’re here so that’s not a meaningful question!”
Yoojin smiled suspiciously. Maru decided to call her the mini-Miso from today onwards.
They got on the bus near the subway station.
“Over here.”
Bosung Girls High stood tall right next to the apartment complex. Unlike Woosung High, which was an engineering high school, lights were still on in class thanks to the presence of students studying after school. Girls were leaving through the front gates. It seemed that they were going to the nearby restaurants to have dinner. They walked past some girls that were walking arm-in-arm, arriving at the entrance. Aram and Jiyoon were able to walk past the school gates without any feeling of rejection, but the rest couldn’t.
Were they supposed to rejoice at the fact that they could enter a no-boys zone? Maru crossed the entrance after seeing Yoojin waving at him to come. The girls glanced at him once before just going their ways. Perhaps it was the fact that he wasn’t wearing a school uniform that made them disinterested.
However, the situation changed after entering the school building. The girls all stared at the boys in the corridor. Their gazes were quite sharp. Yoojin had to explain several times to the teachers they met along the way. Most of the time, the teachers cheered her on, saying that she could go. The reaction was completely opposite to how it would be in Woosung High. If it was Woosung High, the teachers would’ve told them not to cause any trouble after hearing that it was for the acting club.