Chapter 309 (2/2)

They walked upstairs to the fourth floor and walked to the end of the corridor when they were greeted with a passageway to another building.

“The entrance to the annex building is under construction, so we need to go through here.”

They followed Yoojin through the passage. The walls of the annex had paint that was still shiny. It seemed that it hadn’t been that long since it was built.

“Are the schools in Seoul all this good financially?”

He was pondering to himself, but Yoojin replied to him,

“It’s the power of independent schools.”

They climbed down to the 3rd floor in the annex building, where they could see girls busily moving around. They were also holding a huge banner.

“It’s the school festival soon.”

It also smelled like some tteokbokki. Now that Maru thought about it, Woosung High also had its own festival before the summer holidays. It was named the Woosung Festival, and it was only held biennially, so there wasn’t one last year.

Yoojin heavily pushed on the door on the left wall of the 3rd floor. The girls who were practicing inside blinked their eyes and looked towards the door.

“I’m here!”

Yoojin entered like a general. Maru walked in first to lead the way. Since it was a girls high school, the club members were naturally all girls. Their club room, or perhaps practice room, was half the size of Woosung High’s 5th floor hall. It was large enough for all the members to freely run around in, so it looked like a good place to practice. There was a soft mat on the floor, so they had to take their shoes off at the entrance. It was a drastic contrast to their own environment at Woosung High where they were occupying an unused classroom.

“Wow.”

The other club members all entered while exclaiming. The members of Bosung High’s acting club started cleaning up immediately. It seemed that they were notified of this beforehand.

“These are my juniors.”

“Hello.”

Over twenty girls greeted at the same time. Maru wondered if they were all first years and had a look at Daemyung. He didn’t have a good expression as though he didn’t like standing in front of so many girls. Maru pushed his back. He was supposed to be their representative here.

“And he’s Park Daemyung, the club president of the acting club at Woosung High. He’s a 2nd year, and… you told me you didn’t have a girlfriend, right? The girls here are all kind and pretty so take your pick.”

Yoojin smirked. Although she was saying that, she was looking at Jiyoon. This girl clearly knew what was going on and yet was doing this on purpose.

“Hello.”

For some reason, the girls looked very strict. Maru thought that the atmosphere would be more lax and elegant, but they looked like soldiers that just finished boot camp. Their eyes looked like they were about to shout their rank and names.

“Are they usually like this, or are they scared of you?”

“Think of them as being polite,” Yoojin spoke.

And so, they had a brief time for introduction with the ‘polite’ members of Bosung High. 20 girls' names flashed by, and it was honestly impossible to remember them all. After the introduction period, they went into practice immediately. The girls quickly cleaned up the place and started preparing for the play.

“Where are the 2nd years?”

“They probably went home because there’s no practice today.”

“How about them? There are twenty people here even though there’s no practice?”

“The 2nd years and first years that are getting ready for the competition aren’t here, and the girls here today are practicing for the play at the school festival.”

“The school festival?”

“What, you thought I was asking you for help on the play for the competition?”

“You weren’t?”

“We have our pride you know? And do you think I’m that insensitive to ask you to do such a thing? A lot of first years entered this year, leading to the discussion that we should try doing a play for both the competition and the school festival. I originally wanted to go to Myunghwa High, but they’re elites. Meaning, your girlfriend is actually very busy.”

“And that’s why you came to us?”

“Yes.”

Maru smiled bitterly. He was worried for nothing. He felt much better now. Daemyung was smiling as well. Although he had said all those fancy words, he must have felt very worried inside after all.

“But you care about them quite a lot considering that you left the club.”

“Of course. I might have left because I’m busy, but I used to be a member here. For now, watch them do theirs first and show them your version. I think that will give them the general gist of it.”

Practice began under Yoojin’s guidance. 6 out of the 20 people came out and started acting. The rest just separated into two groups and sat on each side.

“How about the others?”

“We’re gonna pick people to do the play tomorrow. There’s team one and team two.”

“You really are on a completely different scale to us.”

“We’re nothing compared to Myunghwa High though. They have actual celebrities in their acting club.”

“Really?”

“How else do you think they’re sweeping the prizes all over the country? They have several idols there as well, as well as child actors. They even have a separate class that houses all of them. Rather than that, it’s starting now. You look at that girl over there. She’s the company employee.”

Maru nodded before looking at the girl with short hair.

* * *

“Let’s stop there for now! We’ll take a break.”

She nodded her head hearing the club president’s words. When she looked outside, she saw the moon. So much time had passed already. She drank some water before heaving out a deep breath. Everyone was nervous since the nation-wide competition was just half a month away. They got the grand prize last year, the year before that, and the year before that as well. There were a flag and several trophies in one corner of the clubroom. The trophy was given to them, but the flag was supposed to be kept by the school that won the competition for just that year, meaning that they would have to return the flag if they didn’t win the competition again this summer. The flag had been with them for several years now, so it would be a pity if it disappeared.

This was why the seniors were very strict during practice as well - in order to maintain the tradition of winning the grand prize.

“First years, go buy some kimbap and some snacks.”

The club president spoke as she handed out some money. It seemed that she was planning to have a late night meal at the school as well.

She started stretching on the spot. She was the type to cool down if she dazed off. Just as she leaned against the wall and stretched her legs out, the club president came by and pressed down on her back.

“You got your line wrong once back there.”

“Urgh, sorry about that.”

“The competition is right in front of us, we can’t have the main character making mistakes on us.”

The club president let go after chuckling. She smiled as she looked up at the president.