Chapter 319 (1/2)

‘I became a mindless old fool who decided to interrupt the business between two youths.’

Maru glanced at Jiyoon as he took a bite out of a piece of dumpling. She was pouting and was biting little pieces off the pickled radish. They met eyes just now and she had something akin to resentment in her eyes. Maru felt like he was sitting on a chair made of needles. When he opened the door, Jiyoon was about to say something to Daemyung with a flushed face. He just had to interrupt at that moment, so saying anything would be just an excuse.

“The dumpling is good. Where did you get them?”

Maru glared at Daemyung who obliviously just talked about dumplings. Seeing him stuff his cheeks with dumplings and drown himself in happiness, he felt even more sorry towards Jiyoon. It seemed that this guy didn’t even know what kind of situation he was in just now.

Someone sighed. Maru was sure that it was Jiyoon without even looking.

“Daemyung, are they good?”

“Yeah.”

“I see. You should eat some more then.”

He wanted to say something, but he couldn’t because he saw Jiyoon’s prickly glare. Maru made a bitter expression and spoke to Aram who was enjoying dumplings as well.

“You should have guarded outside.”

“We didn’t know you’d be back so early. We just went to get some drinks. No wait, if you saw that something was happening when you opened the door, you should have closed it immediately.”

“Our eyes already met, so it would be even stranger if I just closed the door without saying anything.”

“Anyway, it’s all your fault.”

Aram pouted as well. She looked like the sandcastle she painstakingly built had just been washed away by a wave. Of course, the wave was Maru. Maru scratched his eyebrows.

“Since it’s like this, let’s redeem it through the festival.”

“The festival?”

Aram made a suspicious smile.

“Daemyung-seonbae. Have you decided on what to do for the festival?”

“No, not yet. I was planning to talk about it with you right now. If you have anything you want to do, please go ahead and speak.”

“We’re the acting club, so of course we have to do a play. Why don’t we give it a twist and do a play with a lot of ad-libbing?”

“A lot of ad-libbing?”

“Yes. Doesn’t that sound fun?”

“Well. If there’s no storyline, doing a drama at all will be hard. If we’re going to do a play, we should decide on the main storyline at least.”

“Nah, it’s a festival we’re talking about. It’s not a proper play but something we can all have a laugh over. How about it? Doesn’t it sound fun?”

“We should just decide on an ending and see how things go. How about it?”

“Really? Are you okay with that? Just because we’re the acting club doesn’t mean we have to do an act at all. If you have anything you want to do, then you should talk about it.”

It seemed that Aram had already signalled everyone as everyone said that an act would be good. Jiyoon also nodded.

“If everyone’s okay with it, then let’s go with a play. We don’t have that much preparation time, so we shouldn’t do anything too difficult.”

“We should do a romance!”

“A ro...mance?”

“Yes. It’s a festival, so there’s no need for tragedies. How about Romeo and Juliet?”

“That’s a tragedy though….”

“It’s fine because it’s an ad-lib. Please, please?”

Maru said ‘that sounds decent’. He could see what Aram was thinking. This was a scheme that was known to everyone but Jiyoon and Daemyung. Aram continued her story with an excited face. It was already turning into a ‘how to tease them perfectly’ rather than ‘how to tie them properly’, but it was the results that were important after all. As long as it went as she said, the two would definitely become closer.

“Let’s decide on roles now. Also, you should make a general plot. And then we should do the act! Sounds good, doesn’t it?”

“Al-alright. Everyone seems okay with it.”

“Then Jiyoon is Romeo and Daemyung-seonbae is Juliet.”

“What?”

“Isn’t it the opposite? No wait, why am I Romeo in the first place?”

Only Daemyung and Jiyoon objected to that. Of course, the rest stayed silent since it was what they had agreed upon. It seemed that USS Aram had departed the port and couldn’t be returned. Aram was at the helm, so he decided to let it be for now.

“You did things like crossdressing competitions in middle school, didn’t you? Our school did. Did you not?”

“I guess that happened.”

“See? Just an ordinary boring play is no fun. Since it’s a festival, let’s twist things up.”

“But me as Juliet is a little….”

Daemyung smiled awkwardly as he spoke. At the same time, he was sending a desperate plea for help to Maru. His eyes were saying something along the lines of ‘help me’ or ‘save me’. Maru slowly turned away his head.

This is all for your own good.

Daemyung flinched and looked at Dowook next, but there was no way Dowook would help. Jiyoon was just looking into nowhere with a face that looked like she had given up. At that moment, Aram whispered into her ears, and Jiyoon’s expression slowly brightened up. Although the confusion was still there, it seemed that she had accepted it somewhat.

“I’m… fine with it.”

One of the main characters ended up accepting the role. Maru looked at Daemyung. The flow was unstoppable and Daemyung ended up accepting.

“Yes!”

Though, the one that was the happiest was Aram.

* * *

“Have a safe trip back home!”

“See you tomorrow.”

They scattered in front of the school gates. After watching some of the members walk towards the bus stop, Maru got on his bike. He had to do some grocery shopping before going home. Today, pork neck was on sale. Making some kimchi-jjigae out of it would last two days at least.

“What is it?” He braked as he answered a call. It was from Bada.

-Oppa.

That ‘oppa’ was spoken in a nasal voice. It was clear that she had a request.

“Snacks?”

-Yeah. Potato ones.

“I’ll buy them, so clean up the house for me.”

-Alright.

Just as he was about to start biking again after the call, his phone started ringing again. He thought that it might be Bada and put his ears against the phone. However, the voice belonged to a man.

-Can you take a call right now?