“Maru-seonbae, aren’t you ditching too much these days?”
Maru, who was eating some tofu, looked at Aram, who was sitting on the other side.
“But I went last week.”
“To be precise, that was last Monday. We should really do some practice together.”
“I want to do that too.”
It was lunch time. Maru met the juniors of the acting club on his way to the cafeteria. They decided to eat lunch together, and the whole acting club sat at the same table.
“Maru is very busy,” Daemyung stood up for him.
“I know that, but he’s still our senior. He should really come and help us practice. Daemyung-seonbae is having a hard time by himself. You told us to show up when we were promoting ourselves. How can you be the one to not show up?”
“I can’t apologize enough.”
Maru gave half of his pork cutlet to Aram as an apology. Fortunately, she seemed to like his gift and stopped glaring at him.
“I don’t really have any complaints because Daemyung-seonbae always does his best, but Dowook-seonbae is always sleeping. You should show an example for us juniors.”
Dowook, who was just quietly eating his lunch, looked at Aram with a glare, but Aram wasn’t someone who would be taken aback because of something like that. In the end, Dowook just shook his head in resignation.
“Here, take this and stay away from me.”
“I’ll accept it since you’re giving it to me, but you guys are really going too far. It looks like you’re pushing all the responsibility to Daemyung-seonbae. Jiyoon, you say something too. Express your annoyance at being unable to go on dates on the weekend.”
Ah, so that was what she was leading up to. Maru looked at Aram, who looked like she was clearly enjoying the situation, and Jiyoon, who was telling Aram not to say it, alternately. After seeing the two quarrel, he spoke.
“I’ll go there on Thursday. I don’t have to go to the action school anymore.”
“Ah, you were shooting a movie right? With Bangjoo as well,” Jiyoon, who was sitting next to Daemyung, quietly asked.
“We came back, well, today just after midnight.”
“Ah, so that’s why Bangjoo wasn’t conscious throughout class. We were going to get lunch together, but we came by ourselves since he was sleeping. We tried waking him up, but he didn’t budge at all.”
“That, you did well. He had it very hard, so he needs some sleep.”
Bangjoo moved around in excitement until the very moment he left the scene. He should probably need the whole day to recover.
“Seonbae. Have you seen Lee Hyuk? Bangjoo told us that one of the main actors was Lee Hyuk.”
Aram asked with a face full of curiosity.
“He did come.”
“How is he? Does he have a bad personality just like the rumors?”
“Why do you think rumors stay as rumors? It’s because they never get verified. He’s just ordinary.”
“Really? I guess the internet really isn’t to be trusted, huh.”
“I heard Kwon Dayoon was there as well, is that true?”
Daemyung asked as he put his spoon down. His food tray was completely clean even though it was full at the beginning. His appetite was really great.
“Yeah, she did come. What about it?”
Just as he was about to say something, Daemyung flinched and looked next to him. Maru followed his gaze. Jiyoon was swirling her spoon in the doenjang-guk.
“No, it’s not what you think.”
Daemyung quickly explained. This boy had it hard as well. Maru was really curious about how the romance between these two would progress in the future. Jiyoon would still be the dominant side, right?
“If you finished eating, let’s get up.”
Dowook stood up with his food tray.
They left as they ate the stick yogurt that was handed out as dessert.
“What was the fifth period again?”
“Math.”
“Shit.”
Math after lunch. Maru felt sleep overwhelm him just by thinking about it.
Having returned to his class, Maru put his textbook on the desk and went straight to sleep. He had to get some sleep now if he didn’t want to doze off during 5th period. The always noisy classroom was quiet for some reason. It was thanks to the drowsiness coming from a full stomach as well as the rather cool wind.
Just as he yawned and was about to get some sleep though, his phone, which he put inside his desk drawer, started vibrating. The urge to ignore it was really big right now.
“Hey, Han Maru. Pick up your call. It’s noisy.”
Dojin, who was sleeping next to him, kicked his chair as he spoke. Maru brushed his face with his hand and took out his phone. The golden time to sleep was lost now.
“Hello?”
He picked up the call while still half-asleep.
-Why is there no energy in your voice? Have you not had lunch?
“I did have lunch, and it’s making me even more sleepy.”
-You’re young, you shouldn’t sound so weak already.
“People in their growth period need more sleep. But hey, what’s up?”
The one that called was Yang Ganghwan. According to Maru’s knowledge, he should be in his break period right now after the play in which he played the main character, was finished.
-You’re coming to Seoul today, aren’t you?
“Yes, I have lessons.”
-What time do you leave Film?
“I think it ends around half past eight.”
-Alright, thanks.
“What?”
Pop – the call was cut off. Maru moved the phone away from his ears and looked down at it. What was that about? He scratched his eyebrows for a while, but he couldn’t be bothered to think about it. He was in desperate need of some sleep right now. When he had a look at the clock, he saw that there were 30 minutes until the start of the 5th period. 30 minutes was plenty of time for some sweet sleep.
Just as he lay against the desk in order to sleep again, someone tapped on his shoulder.
“Maru, you asleep?”
Maru raised his head when a girl’s voice carefully called out to him.
“Oh, Yoonjung-seonbae-nim.”
Lee Yoonjung, who had rolled her long hair into a bun, was standing at the back door. Even Dojin and Daemyung woke up due to her voice and were sitting up.
“Oh, president,” Daemyung said as he looked at Yoonjung.
“You’re the president now. Daemyung, you look like you gained some weight over the summer.”
“I-I lost weight.”
“Really?”
Yoonjung shrugged with a smile.
“What brings you here?”
Maru asked with a yawn. The 3rd year seniors were busy preparing for college exams. Although they frequented the clubroom during March, it was very hard to see their faces after June.
“I have a favor to ask from the acting club.”
When Yoonjung stepped aside, they saw another girl standing behind her. That girl, who was wearing round glasses, had a smile on her face.
“Hi!”
She said her greetings very cheerfully. Maru nodded since she looked like a friend of Yoonjung.
“Talk with us for a little. Just ten minutes is fine.”
Yoonjung winked as she spoke. Maru looked at the girl with glasses standing right next to Yoonjung.
“I’m in the broadcasting club, and we’re going to resume the radio soon.”
“The radio?”
Maru subconsciously looked at the ceiling. The speaker, attached right in the middle of the ducts, which was next to the hard-working electric fans, entered his eyes.
“The school radio. I wonder if you remember us talking about many things with the students.”
“Oh, that.”
Last year, there was a period of around a month with a school radio program. The basic format was to play a song and read someone’s personal stories. There was probably negative, if any, feedback as it soon disappeared. The presence of that very program was very faint in his memories.
“Was there something like that?”
“I don’t remember.”
Daemyung and Dojin didn’t seem to know about it.
“But why do you need the acting club?”
“This time, we’re going to do an audio drama.”
“An audio drama?”
Yoonjung, who was sitting next to her, pushed the girl with the glasses, who clearly seemed overly excited, and added some detail.
“There’s a limit to reading stories from the listeners. I mean how dramatic can a Korean high school student be? They’re mostly the same. That’s why we came up with the idea to just create an audio drama. Oh, it wasn’t us, but.”
“I asked Yoonjung since she used to be in the acting club, and she told me that I should talk to you guys. How about it?”
So this was what it was about. Maru decided to find a suitable reason to reject them. There was no merit for them. Moreover, acting with just a voice was a different realm altogether from normal acting. Moreover, he did not want to add a school event to his now-decent schedule. They didn’t seem desperate either, so there shouldn’t be a problem even if they declined.
Just as he was about to express his rejection, he saw Daemyung standing next to him.
They had a request for the acting club, and the club president was Daemyung. Maru hinted at Daemyung to reject them.
“An audio drama?” Daemyung asked back.
“Yeah. Our broadcasting club, no, there’s actually a coalition of high school broadcasting clubs and that came up. We decided to try it out in a few schools in Seoul and the Gyeonggi region. The YBS radio is apparently going to host a youth audio drama in their 9 p.m. slot for around 30 minutes, so this is a pre-production event of sorts. Dramas for the tired exam students – you know, things like that.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Are you the club president?”
“Eh? Ah, yes, I am.”
The girl wearing glasses came into the classroom. Maru stared holes into the girl that kept approaching Daemyung, but she didn’t seem to mind.
“Uhm, Daemyung?”
Things weren’t looking good. That naïve boy was weak against people who were very pushy. On top of that, she was a girl and a senior to boot. Maru definitely had to help him out here. He had to say that they had their hands full and that they were busy enough already.
At that moment, a hand reached out from behind him and covered his mouth. Maru turned around, startled. Yoonjung was smiling at him.
“If we can be of help, we’ll do it.”
“Really?”
The girl wearing glasses grabbed Daemyung’s hands. Daemyung was startled and tried to pull his hands away, but the girl’s strength seemed to be great as Daemyung was unable to shake her off.
“Then you promised, okay?”
“U-u-uhm, if it takes too much time, w-we might not be able to help….”
“Don’t worry about that. There’s no pressure. You don’t need to feel the tiniest pressure. This is just done for fun. It’s for enjoyment!”
The girl shook Daemyung’s hands up and down. Maru shook Yoonjung off.
“Seonbae-nim?”
“It’s not a bad proposal for the acting club. Like what Yeondu said, we won’t be taking a lot of your time, and I only recommended you guys to her after hearing the whole story from her.”
Hearing that, Maru nodded. Yoonjung was someone that cherished the acting club the most. There was no reason for her to have the acting club do something that might bring harm.
“That’s right. If this goes well, you might be on the public radio. It’s a drama after all, you know? You get practice as well. There are no drawbacks.”
The girl with glasses patted Maru’s shoulders with her small hands. Even though her hands were small, they were quite spicy. He felt like he now knew why Daemyung was unable to move.
“Then I’ll be back after school. Oh, I’m Park Yeondu. See you later.”
Yeondu left after hopping onto Yoonjung’s back. It felt as though a storm had swept past. Maru shook his head.
“Daemyung.”
“Y-yeah?”
“Don’t you ever make a stamp.”
“Why?”
“You might bring your entire family to ruin by guaranteeing someone else’s loan.”
“……”
“Now then.”
Maru had a look at the clock while sighing. Unfortunately, the hour hand was almost touching the figure 1.
“There goes my sleep, I guess.”
