Chapter 56

Chapter 56

Yoonjung put down her chopsticks as she watched Maru leave . The meat was sizzling on the grill, but she didn’t dare pick it up .

“Maybe I should’ve invited him to the last party after all,” Yoonjung whispered .

Her voice was small enough to be buried by all the noises around them, but it was still heard by all of the club members on their table .

“He left because he didn’t like it . It would’ve been weird to call him,” Geunseok said .

The boy regained his confidence again after the compet.i.tion . As a matter of fact, he was able to show off even more skill than in the regionals . They didn’t slip even once, and thanks to it, they were able to get first place .

A few members agreed with Geunseok’s words . The first to speak was Yurim . The brown-haired girl picked up the pork belly Geunseok gave her as she spoke .

“Geunseok’s right . Things would’ve been awkward if Maru was here . I mean, didn’t you see what just happened? He has no shame . He just ate a few pieces of meat and left without even saying sorry . He ruined the entire mood . He’s too much . ”

Yoonjung wanted to retort, but couldn’t .

‘I have no right to say anything to them . ’

That day, Maru picked a fight with the club members . He used all the right words to get them all mad . Like a woodp.e.c.k.e.r who kept pecking at their wounds . After that event, the club members got to practicing again .

At first, they began practicing to reclaim their lost pride, but at some point, they practiced to prove Maru wrong . Back then, Yoonjung didn’t even know what their problem was .

‘No, I knew all along . I just decided to ignore it . Because if I didn’t… I would get attacked . ’

Maru told them to look . He told them to stop pretending, and look at the club for real . Thanks to him, the club was able to examine the problem properly for a brief second .

‘ . . . He had to make us act, in order to make us look at the problem . ’

The main reason why they started practicing again was because the play they performed that day was horrible . Maru told them to look at it directly . Yoonjung had to wonder, what was Maru thinking when he told them that? It didn’t seem like he said those words just because he was mad . That would be very unlike him .

Maru was a spectator . He was never the type to step in aggressively to taunt the rest of the club .

“Yoonjung,” Joonghyuk called out at her .

He was smiling, but his smile had no trace of happiness in it . It looked like a mask to hide his current feelings with .

“Let’s eat . ”

Only then did Yoonjung snap back to reality . She noticed the club members looking at her now . Even Geunseok and Yurim seemed troubled by her . All of the sudden, Yoonjung felt like she stepped into foreign territory . Was this really the acting club?

“Y-yeah! Let’s eat!”

That was the only thing she was able to say . As she stuffed meat into her mouth, she thought to herself for a second . She finally realized what made her feel so nervous when instructor Miso asked the club to meet up .

* * *

“Come back to your senses . You’re an adult already, don’t you feel embarra.s.sed?”

“Who said I’m over thirty?! I’m still twenty nine! I’m not in my thirties! I’m not!!”

“ . . . . . ”

Maru had to wonder why he was reminded of the time he had to carry his boss back after a company meal . He dragged Miso to a nearby playground, absolutely convinced that people’s weights nearly doubled after getting fully drunk . After arriving at the old playground, Maru laid Miso down on one of the benches .

“Phew . ”

The unexpected workout tired him out completely . He wiped his forehead and looked around . Thankfully, there was a convenience store right next to them . Maru gave Miso a short glance .

“Nothing should happen while I’m gone . . . ”

He ran over to the convenience store to buy Miso a hangover drink, and a soda for himself .

“These things are expensive as always . ”

The tiny bottle cost him 5,000 won . During the time when a full bowl of soup with rice would only set him back by 3,000 won .

“Take this, instructor . ”

Maru handed the bottle to Miso, but the woman didn’t budge . Maru didn’t want to waste time . He pinched Miso’s cheeks to open her mouth, and stuffed the drink into it . Miso coughed once after drinking it, and sat up with a small moan .

“You have no manners . . . ”

“Just drink this already . What do you even think you’re doing in front of a student?”

“Ugh . You remind me too much of my dad . So annoying . ”

“I’ll leave then, if I’m so annoying . You should go back home on a taxi . ”

“Hey, hey! Where do you think you’re going?!”

“It’s 10pm . I need to go home . ”

“ . . . Ugh . ”

Miso stumbled forward and grabbed Maru’s arm .

“Don’t leave yet . ”

“If you want to rant, I can call someone for you . Taesik’s good, right?”

“Youu! If you call him! I’m going to cry! Ugh . . . ”

Watching the usually strict instructor act like this was actually quite cute . Come to think of it, as long as she closed her mouth, she was quite the looker . It was just her blonde hair that made her look intimidating . Without it, she’d have the appearance of a proper lady .

Maru shook his head and walked back to the bench . There were a lot of people outside, since the night was cool . Even this old playground had a few visitors . The last thing he wanted to deal with was a crying woman in front of all these people . Experiencing that once in his life was more than enough already .

“Can we rest for a bit?”

* * *

After saying their goodbyes, Yurim quietly made her way over to Geunseok . The boy grabbed her hand gently .

“Want to walk for a bit?”

“Sure . ”

Yurim liked Geunseok’s hand . Grabbing the boy’s big hand tended to calm her down . After she started grabbing his hand, the time she spent on her phone drastically decreased . It felt like his hand was making sure she wouldn’t get nervous without her phone again .

‘Warm . ’

It was a hot summer, but she didn’t feel hot at all . As a matter of fact, she wanted to get closer to Geunseok . The boy changed his grip to clasp her hand gently . That calmed Yurim down even more .

Geunseok was like a tree . A tree to lean on .

“It was a bit awkward a moment ago,” Geunseok said .

Yurim had to agree .

“For real . I didn’t think he’d really come out . ”

“Is it really that difficult to say sorry? He almost managed to split the club apart back then . ”

“Yeah, yeah . He was saying all sorts of strange stuff . Especially about practice . We were going to practice anyway in a few weeks, but he acted like he knew everything . ”

“He probably wanted to try sitting in a pedestal or something . ”

“Yeah . I thought well of him until then . Turns out he was a total fake . ”

Yurim looked up at Geunseok after speaking . The boy was looking down at her with a proud smile . What a beautiful smile . Yurim couldn’t be more proud of the fact that Geunseok was her boyfriend .

“Let’s not hate on him too much though . He’s a friend . ”

Geunseok gently rubbed her cheek . What a thoughtful boyfriend . To think he’d still care so much for Maru after that…

“Okay . ”

Yurim tightened her grip a little more around Geunseok’s hand . Right then, she felt her phone vibrate inside her pocket . It was Soyeon .

“Give me a second,” Yurim picked up the call . “Yeah . Soyeon?”

- Where are you? I thought we were going back home together .

“Oh, really? I’m going back with Geunseok . ”

- Really? You should’ve told me .

“Sorry . I forgot . ”

- . . . You’ve been forgetting a lot .

“Mm?”

- It’s nothing . Have fun . But don’t show off too much in front of me, you hear? I don’t want to die of jealousy just yet .

Soyeon hung up with a small laughter . Yurim felt even better after her best friend’s call .

‘She must be a bit jealous . ’

Then again, anyone would be jealous of having Geunseok as a boyfriend . He was good at studying, good looking, and he was good at acting . The boy was just good at everything .

“Want to go to a karaoke?” Yurim asked, shaking her hand .

“I can’t sing though,” Geunseok smiled nervously in response .

How cute . Yurim could easily tell that despite looking so reliable, Geunseok was actually a little child inside .

‘I’ll take care of Geunseok . ’

Yurim relied on Geunseok . She could also tell that the boy was relying on her as well . Geunseok only managed to look so firm and upstanding because of her . What an amazing relations.h.i.+p . Geunseok meant the world to her, and she must mean the world to Geunseok as well .

After the day she almost got kidnapped, Yurim started relying on different things for her survival . At first, it was her phone . After she entered high school, it was Soyeon . But things were different now . Geunseok needed her . She was no longer someone who needed to rely on something else to survive . She was a reliable tree that others could lean on .

Yurim grasped Geunseok’s hand even harder out of pride .

“I’ll teach you, don’t worry . ”

“You better . I really can’t sing . ”

“No worries . ”

Yurim grinned . She could feel Geunseok’s warm gaze on her face .

“I’m so happy,” Geunseok said .

“Of what?”

“Of the fact that I met you . ”

“Psh, you just realized?”

That day when Maru messed up the club, Yurim chased after Geunseok as if she was possessed by something . Then, she hugged him . She didn’t know where that courage came from . But she somehow knew that Geunseok would look at her if she did so .

The result? They ended up becoming a great couple . In that sense, Yurim was a little thankful towards Maru . If he didn’t do what he did that day, they wouldn’t be couples now .

‘I guess I’ll be a little nicer to him next time we meet . ’

Yurim started walking with Geunseok’s hand in hand . Under the dark blue sky, the two didn’t seem to have a single worry in the world .

* * *

Soyeon put her phone back in her pocket . If she remembered correctly, Yurim was the one who asked to go back together to begin with . She forgot that? It was a bit disappointing to hear, but the girl wanted to go back with her boyfriend . There wasn’t much Soyeon could do about that .

“What are you doing here?”

Soyeon heard a voice from behind her . It was Dojin and Daemyung .

“What, you’re still here?” Soyeon asked .

“Yeah . Well, it’s still vacation, after all . I told my mom I’d be coming in late already . ”

Dojin responded with the ever-happy face he always put on .

“Um, Soyeon . Are you going home?” Daemyung asked .

It’d be nice if this guy could show some confidence . It was pretty weird how skilled he became on stage .

“I was thinking of going home, yeah . Why?”

“Well, if you aren’t in a hurry, I was wondering if you would like to join us for karaoke . Ah, there’s a senior joining us as well . ”

“Senior?”

Soyeon looked behind the two of them in curiosity . She could see Danmi coming out of the convenience store . Joonghyuk, Yoonjung and Minsung were elsewhere .

“Ah, Soyeon!”

Danmi came running towards them, frantically waving her hand . To be honest, Soyeon was a pretty big fan of Danmi . Yoonjung was too energetic to deal with, and the two male second years were a little difficult to deal with . Out of everyone, Danmi seemed to be the most casual out of all of the second years .

“You’re coming too?”

“Yeah . Let’s go . I don’t want our meeting to end on a weird note just yet . ”

Soyeon found herself nodding . Thank goodness she wasn’t the only one who thought that .

“Maru… I wonder if he’s ok . ”

Perhaps she shouldn’t have opened her mouth about the subject, but she was worried .

“Don’t know . I actually don’t know much about Maru . Don’t know what he thinks, don’t know what he wants . ”

“Agreed . ”

“Yeah . ”

Dojin and Daemyung agreed pretty much instantly . The three of them said Maru was ‘definitely a good guy, but hard to predict’, before moving onto instructor Miso for a bit .

“Well, in any case, we should really be going to that karaoke . You coming, Soyeon?”

“Yes, I will . ”

“Let’s go sing our hearts out . Also, Soyeon, you need to go on a diet with me . ”

“Come on, I told you I don’t really care about weight . ”

“No . I don’t want to diet by myself, so I want you to join me . Yoonjung just doesn’t get fat to begin with, it’s frustrating . ”

“That’s true . Yoonjung doesn’t gain weight at all . She eats more than me, too . ”

“Seriously! G.o.d is so unfair . ”

“Yeah . Wait, I don’t care about my weight, so I don’t want to diet . ”

“You look cute that way, but I totally look ugly if I gain weight . ”

Danmi dragged Soyeon away, blabbering away as she went . Soyeon realized that Danmi was being a little unnatural . Almost as if the girl was trying her best to clear out the awkward air that Maru created .

“Fine, I’ll go, I’ll go!”

Soyeon stepped out to the front of the group with Danmi, trying to stop thinking about Maru and Yurim for a little bit .