Chapter 52

Chapter 52

Joonghyuk glanced at the smiling club members . The room became silent for a second after Maru left, but they soon returned to their usual, casual selves, talking about things that happened a few days prior .

Joonghyuk was joining in as well . He was just talking about stuff that came to his mind, like what movies he watched during the week, and what new snacks he binged on this time around . No one in the room dared say that there was something wrong with the atmosphere .

Today especially, Joonghyuk felt the auditorium was incredibly large . Back when Miso first came to the club, she told them that her objective was to make the auditorium feel very small and cramped to them . As she told him, the boy had never thought of the auditorium as being large and spacious during the last three months . But a month after they failed at the competition, the auditorium felt larger than a soccer field to him .

‘Should I tell them?’

One reading session, some small talk, no more practice otherwise . In his head, he still remembered the script and blocking . Right now, if someone told him to act on cue, he had the confidence of being able to do it relatively well .

He just didn’t know how long that confidence would last .

‘Maybe even now . . . ’

When skill is rooted in your casual behavior, you could call it confidence . Without that skill, though, you could only call your demeanor arrogance . Did the club have confidence right now, or were they just soaking in arrogance?

In the midst of talking, his eyes met with a first year’s . It was Yurim, the girl with the phone . She was looking at him with nervous eyes . She was definitely thinking the same thing Joonghyuk was thinking right now .

Is this okay?

He turned his head to look at Iseul . The girl was sending the exact same signals . The others seemed to realize that they were on a rotting tightrope as it was already .

'Everyone probably knows, actually . ’

This time, he turned to Yoonjung . She was talking about a dream she had yesterday very loudly . She was overdramatic most of the time, but things seemed especially worse this time around . She was even tapping Danmi’s shoulder, trying to get a ‘am I right?’ out of the other girl . Perhaps she was smiling with the feeling that they were on thin ice as well .

* * *

“So I had this thought . ”

‘What am I doing?’

“It was so funny . ”

‘This isn’t right . ’

“No, for real . ”

‘This isn’t right at all . ’

Yoonjung clenched her mouth shut after a loud laugh . Her thoughts weren’t matching with her words at all . This wasn’t the time for making casual talk . They shouldn’t be acting like this right now . She was thinking of a bunch of things right now on the inside, but she couldn’t help but say things that were unrelated to acting right now .

She was getting nervous . That stale air within the club didn’t leave even after a full month . Whenever the club began talking casually after the reading session, Yoonjung was assaulted by nervousness . She was scared that the silence between the club would last even longer .

Starting from a month ago, there were moments where the entire club would go silent looking at each other . Whenever this happened, Yoonjung found it extremely hard to breathe . So she would speak even louder than before to prevent everyone else from recognizing that silence . But she was clearly reaching a limit here . She didn’t even know what she was talking about at this point . Why was she caring so much about her lunch from yesterday again?

To Yoonjung, the club was a precious place . She adored the process of setting up a play from scratch, despite the fact that she was never able to complete one during her first year . Just the fact that she could smile together and cry together with other people made her happy .

But what was happening now?

She was feeling bothered and annoyed in the space that she’s loved so much . At this rate, she might actually suffocate in the club . Back in the past, she would go to the club whenever she could to talk to club members . But what about now? She started attending the club exclusively on the weekends . How did this happen?

* * *

‘Mm . ’

The auditorium was quiet ever since Yoonjung closed her mouth . It wasn’t a silence that came from comfort, but rather awkwardness . The silence was so encompassing that members of the club started dividing into smaller groups .

Iseul looked to her side . The three students from the faculty of design were sitting apart from everyone else . Yurim was saying something quietly to Geunseok, while Soyeon was looking at the two in annoyance .

Taejoon was smiling, but his smile looked like one born from habit . Danmi and Minsung were whispering something to each other . Iseul couldn’t hear them, but judging from their expressions, they were probably talking about the current situation of the club .

And then there was Joonghyuk . The boy was looking at everyone with trembling lips . He looked like he had a lot to say, but the words seem to be stuck in his throat . Whenever her eyes met with his, he would just smile bitterly .

‘Hm, I feel like I should say something, but I don’t really want to . ’

Iseul didn’t join the acting club because she was interested in acting . She just wanted a new experience . She already had a rock solid future set aside for her, which was to inherit her family’s restaurant .

Iseul grew up with the smell of soup in her neighborhood . She would wake to the visage of her father slicing meat, and her mother making kimchi . She naturally grew into the mindset that she would have to inherit the restaurant after them .

Iseul loved the potent smells of the bone broth boiling in the background, and that of meat that rose up when they boiled it . She adored the spicy, sour smell of the kimchi that they made . She had no qualms about inheriting the restaurant after her parents .

That’s why she didn’t even think about going to college . She promised herself and her parents that she would help them out with the restaurant full time after her graduation .

Maybe it was because of that, but Iseul thought that her high school life should be bright and flamboyant . That’s why she decided to join the acting club to begin with .

Just a month ago, she was very satisfied with her decision . Her muscles were constantly screaming at her in pain, but all she did in response was to smile . Memorizing difficult lines only made her more and more excited instead of getting her annoyed at herself . Handling costumes reminded her of the doll house play that she enjoyed in her childhood, and touching up the set props made her feel like a skilled carpenter .

Everything was a new experience to her . Back then, she thought joining the acting club was the best decision that she could’ve ever made . But what about now?

All they had left were boring reading sessions, casual talk she could make with her friends, and a few snacks .

‘This is boring . . . ’

What the hell was this? Everything about the club suddenly felt so gray .

‘It’d probably be hard for us to return to that time, huh . ’

Iseul turned to look at Geunseok . The shining star of the club suddenly became such a boring person . Well, maybe her first impressions of him were false from the beginning . He just looked… so desperate to defend himself right now .

'To think the lead actor would become like this . . . ’

The acting club was finished for her . Worst of all, instructor Miso stopped coming as well . Just the instructor’s absence alone degraded the club like so .

'I’m not sure what I can do either . ’

'Geunseok! Stop acting like a child! Let’s practice!’ Saying that was easy enough . What came after was the real problem .

Would the resulting play really be fun? Plus, if she said those words now, Geunseok would just leave the club right there . Without the main character, the play couldn’t run at all .

‘I guess I’ll find a different club . ’

This club’s finished . At least, that’s what Iseul thought .

* * *

Dojin, on the other hand…

‘I wonder where I should farm today . ’

Was thinking of other things .

* * *

Maru opened the auditorium doors . The place grew completely silent during the time he was out . The members were further spread out as well .

“Finally! You’re here!” Dojin called out with a happy face .

Maru didn’t know what the other members were thinking, but he could say with absolute certainty that Dojin didn’t have a care in the world .

‘Definitely not the type to ever get stressed about anything . ’

The members started talking again when Maru put the snacks down in the middle . Nothing more than small talk, of course .

“You have good taste,” Yoonjung said, grabbing one of the snack bags .

Maru shrugged . That particular one Yoonjung picked up was the brand one she said she hated just a few days prior .

“Time’s passing pretty nicely, isn’t it? It’s already three,” Yoonjung said, pointing at a clock .

A few of the members nodded with an awkward smile, while others didn’t even bother responding . Yoonjung continued talking with a weird smile on her face . Just like yesterday . After another two more hours, the club would finish its activities . After that, the members would leave the auditorium with sighs of relief .

Maru scratched his head for a bit . He did feel a bit embarrassed to actually stand up and say something about this . But he really couldn’t let this pass, especially with Taesik asking him to solve the situation .

“Let’s practice . ”

The entire club looked at him curiously . They all had the gazes of ‘why are you of all people saying that?’ on their faces .

“We got exactly two hours . Why not just get one more practice session in?”

The members looked at each other confusedly . Yoonjung nodded cheerily and grabbed her script, with the other members grabbing their own slowly .

“Might as well start reading . Maru’s right, we should practice . ”

Yoonjung sent a few signals over to Maru as she did so . During reading sessions, Maru was in charge of all the sound effects and notifying scene changes . The reading would start when he says ‘the sound of the television starts playing’ .

“No, not a reading,” Maru responded .

“Huh?”

“A proper practice session . You know, a run . ”

Maru threw his script off to one side and looked at the eleven members .

“A proper practice session?” Yoonjung was the one who responded .

“Get the proper motions in and everything . I’ll watch from the audience seat . ”

“What?”

“We’ve all been doing just reading for the past month . It’s about time you try to act it all out again . Before you forget . ”

Maru scanned the club . They were all looking at him with annoyed eyes . He didn’t have the right to say stuff like this, after all . Even so, Maru asked the entire club to practice .

“We’ve practiced enough . ”

Yoonjung was tightly gripping her script . Her eyes were shaking lightly . Maru looked deep into her eyes .

[This isn’t right . I should be listening to Maru . ]

Humans are creatures of habit . Once they get used to doing something, they don’t try to stop . For the last month, the acting club developed a habit of making small talk and having an extended tea time . Coming out of that routine meant… change . At the same time, a fracture in the club .

Maru nodded, receiving disapproving gazes from most of the club . As he thought, these kids weren’t dumb . They knew exactly what was wrong with the club . They just couldn’t do anything about it, out of the fear that voicing the problem would only make things worse . In the end, they decided that keeping things the way it was would be the best course of action .

Maru scratched his eyebrow and repeated one more time .

“Let’s practice . Before the club becomes even worse than it already is . ”

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