Chapter 458 (1/2)

“Don’t give up on maths. You guys are going to major in engineering, aren’t you? Maths is the fundamental subject no matter which department you end up going to.”

“I’m going to go to the game development department though.”

“And? Do they not use maths over there?”

“Sure they don’t.”

“Like hell that’s true. When you game, you have your avatar, don’t you? Every single movement that character makes is done based on maths.”

The maths teacher tapped on the blackboard and told everyone to focus. It was 4th period - just before lunch. The mind of the students already belonged to the cafeteria so they didn’t bother listening to the teacher.

“What have you been looking at since morning?”

Maru looked at Dojin, who talked to him after poking his waist.

“What do you mean?”

“What do I mean? I mean the thing you put in your desk. Is it a l.e.w.d photo? If it’s something good, share it with me.”

Hearing Dojin’s words, Maru sighed and took out the card that he put inside his desk drawer.

“What’s this?”

“A tarot card.”

“What’s it about?”

“How would I know?”

Along with a sharp smacking sound, the chalk hit Dojin’s forehead before splitting apart into two.

“Nice one!”

“Teach, your skills haven’t rusted.”

While Dojin scratched his forehead with a frown, the bell signifying the end of 4th period started ringing.

“Have a nice lunch. Don’t doze off during 5th period. Also, don’t run.”

As soon as his words ended, the students left in a flash.

“I’m going off first! Hey, wait for me!”

Dojin tapped on Maru’s shoulders before leaving through the back door. The only ones left in the desolate classroom were Dowook, Daemyung and Maru.

“The radio is so bothersome.”

Daemyung patted on the back of Dowook, who fell flat on the desk.

They didn’t know what kind of strings Yeondu, who was in her third year, pulled but the acting club was able to eat in the broadcasting room. It was quite exhausting to run to the cafeteria to get lunch and immediately go to the broadcasting room without rest, but thanks to this, they had a much easier time eating lunch.

“Dojin was saying something to you before. What’s that about?” Daemyung asked with a curious face.

Maru took out the tarot card he showed Dojin. It was the card with the clown holding a black and white mask.

“Tarot?”

“You know it?”

“A little. I read about it on the internet. But why do you have one?”

Daemyung received the card before looking over it. Dowook also sat up and looked at it as well.

“There’s this fortune teller tent I came across after finishing the performance in Daehak-ro, right?”

“Yeah. I went inside since I was having some trouble, but I didn't hear anything and only got that from it.”

“This is the only thing you got? That’s strange.”

Dowook picked up the card before asking if it was expensive. Maru shook his head.

“There’s no way she’d give it to me if it was expensive.”

“Then throw it away. You’re not a girl.”

Dowook threw the card. The card made a parabola in the air before hitting Maru’s c.h.e.s.t and falling down on the desk.

“If it was just an ordinary card, I was going to throw it away as well, but something about it tugged my mind.”

“What do you mean by that?” Asked Daemyung again with curiosity.

“I went home and looked this tarot card up online, but I never found a card with a picture like this. I get that there are a lot of tarot cards out there, but I didn’t find a single similar image, so I found it strange.”

Maru had seen a clown wearing the mask with the black and white mix of colors.

It was in his dream. In a number of dreams he didn’t know if it was a nightmare or not, Maru experienced a situation where a man wearing a mask similar to that one was talking to him from a stage. As it was a dream, Maru couldn’t say for sure whether the mask worn by that man in his dream had the exact same pattern as the one in the picture, but he felt that it was considerably similar.

The place that the clown on the card was standing on was also a stage, which was the same as the man in his dreams. This strange equivalence tugged Maru’s mind.

After looking at the card for a while, Daemyung spoke,

“There isn't just one set of tarot cards.”

“Yeah, I found out about it already. I did look up tarot cards on the internet yesterday, and there were a lot.”

“There are cases where the ill.u.s.tration differs by region. There are differences in their nature, and even in their interpretation.”

“You sound knowledgeable.”

“I just know the general outline.”

Maru pressed on the clown’s face with his thumb as he asked.

“Well, no. It’s my first time seeing this too. Usually, the clown, that is, The Fool card, is depicted as a person standing with an animal on the top of a cliff. Though, don’t take my words for granted. I just looked into this stuff during middle school because I had interest in it.”

“That sounds plenty reliable. So you’re saying this kind of image is not that common?”

“Yeah. Also, these clothes. Don’t they look modern to you? It also looks a bit like a suit.”

“You’re right.”

The hems were just a bit tight, but the general look didn’t look that different to suits worn by salarymen these days.

“Also this. It looks like the man’s wearing a tie.”

When Maru had a closer look at where Daemyung was pointing, he saw a blue line around the neck. At first, he thought it was just a blue line, but when Daemyung mentioned that it looked like a tie, he thought that it was a tie as well.

“I don’t think this is the usual set of cards, but a custom-made one.”

Hearing that it was custom-made, Maru stared at the card for a while.

“Seonbaes! Food! Food! Food!”

Aram, who busted the door open as though it was her own room, came in while shouting food while dancing in an indescribable manner. Bangjoo followed suit with the same dance, while Jiyoon, who came in last, just jerked her shoulders in embarrassment. After flailing her arms up and down, Aram made a V with her arms and shouted ‘Food!’ at the end. Bangjoo imitated her well, but Jiyoon ended up looking down in embarrassment.

“Let’s get some food for now. We should get ready for the broadcast.”

Maru folded the card in half before putting it in his wallet. It wasn’t a problem that he could solve by thinking still on the spot, so it would be better to leave it to one side for now.