Chapter 368 (1/2)

“I don’t see anywhere we can go to either.”

Although they gathered to celebrate their silver prize, the essence was to console their failure to advance. He called Daemyung after separating from Sooil and heard that they were already gathered, which made him go to Suwon immediately. They were in a noraebang when he made the call, but they had switched places to an all-you-can-eat BBQ restaurant. It wasn’t bad since it was dinner time, but it was always the noraebang or a meat buffet. There were a lot of new buildings, yet the number of places that they could go as students kept decreasing.

“What are you doing?”

He turned around to see Aram.

“I’m getting some fresh air. What are you doing out here?”

“I left to give them a good atmosphere.”

“Are those two doing well?”

“I don’t know. Jiyoon was just looking at the floor until I left. Well, they should be doing well about now. After all, we got out of their way. But why the hell are those two not coming?!”

Aram turned around and had a look at the stairs. At that moment, Maru heard a laugh and saw Dowook and Bangjoo coming down. They looked like they were having tons of fun. Now, everyone except Daemyung and Jiyoon had left.

Maru looked at Aram and asked.

“Did she cry a lot before I came?”

“You mean Jiyoon?”

“Yeah.”

“No. She kept being depressed and just started crying right now. I thought that she’d cry a lot since she’s a crybaby, but you know what? When I saw her crying, I wanted to cry with her as well. I mean, if I was just a little bit late, I might have pushed Daemyung-seonbae away, hugged her, and started crying.”

Aram giggled.

“Watching those two was funnier than any comedy I’ve watched,” Dowook said with a giggle.

Bangjoo also nodded his head in agreement.

“Hey, let’s go there.”

Dowook hooked his arm around Bangjoo’s neck and headed to the arcade nearby.

“I think we did pretty well, but we still failed. If we were supposed to fall, I’d rather have us be last. I wonder why they placed us third to make us feel horrible instead,” Aram said.

“At least we got silver. That’s another line on our school report. You’ll be able to say a few more lines at your university interview so it’s not entirely a loss.”

Aram clicked her tongue in disappointment.

“Try hard next year.”

“You should try hard next year as well, seonbae.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be in my third year next year. Even if I put my name in the club, I don’t think I’ll be able to participate. Just like the current third years.”

“What the heck is up with that? You and Daemyung-seonbae should stay until the end. You should still come even if you’re third years. Is uni more important or the acting club?”

“Is that even supposed to be a question?”

“What’s more important? For me, it’s the acting club.”

Aram said that with pride. She clearly said it as a joke. Maru felt rather good that she wasn’t acting dejected.

“Fine, you can bury your bones in the acting club. I’ll be going to uni.”

“Geez, aren’t you too much? Maybe I shouldn’t have come to the acting club and should’ve gone to an athletic club instead.”

“Oh?”

Aram had stretched her arm out and pointed at the punching machine in front of the arcade. Dowook was inserting money into it while Bangjoo was getting ready to hit.

“Let’s just watch that.”

Maru also nodded and walked towards them. Bangjoo exercised his wrist before punching out with all of his power. A leather-popping sound could be heard before the score started going up.

“Wow, Ahn Bangjoo, you’re quite strong,” Dowook said as he checked the score.

“This is nothing. Maru-seonbae, you should do it as well. You too, Dowook-seonbae.”

“Nah for me. You energetic boys can do it.”

At that moment, Dowook, who was jumping on the spot, jumped up and kicked the sandbag upwards. It seemed that the notice ‘don’t kick’ didn’t enter his eyes.

“Hey, don’t break it.”

Maru gave an awkward smile to the elderly that slowly walked out from the arcade and bowed in apology. He played with the whack-a-mole machine which was outside the arcade as well for a while before looking at his watch. It had been around ten minutes, so it would be fine even if they went back in.

“I’ll go back first then.”

Aram walked into the building. Dowook and Bangjoo were absorbed in a fighting game. The two really got along.

‘Looks like everyone is okay.’

As the acting club started off the year with a lot of trouble, it seemed that the shock from not being able to advance was quite small. Although they practiced very hard, it was nothing compared to last year. After all, they stayed behind at school until 10 or 11 at night to practice last year.

“Bangjoo, I’ll kill you if you press the button.”

“Seonbae-nim. You can’t do that in a game.”

Just as Maru chuckled while looking at the two fighting, Aram came back down. When he asked why with his eyes, Aram smiled awkwardly.

“I went up at the wrong time.”

“Why?”

“I went up and the atmosphere was so pink, that I didn’t dare interrupt them.”

“Aha, that’s how it is, huh.”

“Seonbae?”

Maru grinned before walking up the stairs. There were three kinds of joys in life. One was eating delicious food, another was watching a fire by the river, and the last one was to interrupt a lovey-dovey atmosphere.

“They should do it moderately. We haven’t even started grilling the meat yet.”

He gestured to Aram to follow. Aram raised her thumb before following him. They went to the buffet on the 2nd floor. Somehow, Dowook and Bangjoo had finished their game and were right behind them as well.

As he went into the restaurant, he saw the two people stuck right against each other at the table next to the window. They were talking about something as they looked into each other’s eyes. Like Aram said, the atmosphere was pink.

“Take out your phones, let’s go,” Maru smiled as he spoke.

* * *

“Go home carefully. Well done everyone, and see you after the holidays.”