Chapter 143
Chapter 143
The stage was a lot of fun for sure, Maru felt a lot better just saying his lines . Whenever a new reaction from the audience hit him, it felt like more and more of his senses were being liberated .
“It looks like I’ll have to go back inside . ”
He gave a slight bow before coming back off stage, he nodded at the club members before grabbing a water bottle on the floor . He was wearing very light clothes, but he was still very sweaty inside .
“Not much left . ”
Miso told them to focus until the end, the play was quickly reaching its climax . Since the characters never really went through a big conflict, the climax wasn’t particularly tense . It was just a traditional comedy . The play would be considered a success if the audience was smiling until the end . Maru could hear Geunseok speaking on stage . Despite playing a character with no real traits, Geunseok could still attract attention to him . The boy’s voice was trying its utmost in order to not get buried by the other kids around him .
The quality of the play was going up, purely thanks to Geunseok’s work .
* * *
“They’re good . ”
“Yeah . ”
“Didn’t Woosung High fail the prelims last summer?”
“Yeah, that’s what I heard . ”
She was whispering quietly with Yoojin while looking at the boy in front of her . The boy on stage was tall and had very well-defined features . The boy’s charming voice and energy were almost incredible . That wasn’t all . His acting was so natural that the character he was playing almost felt real .
“I wonder why they failed?”
“My senior watched the play, and… Apparently they made a mistake?”
“Mistake?”
“Yeah, apparently it was from the tall kid, so… Probably him?”
“Maru’s tall too, though . ”
“Maru didn’t participate in the summer competition . ”
“Really? So he only started practicing in Fall?”
“Pretty much . ”
“That’s surprising . Really surprising . ”
Yoojin rested her chin on her hand . It really was surprising . Looking back, Maru told her that he worked a part-time job over the summer . Meaning, he didn’t practice at all . He only started practicing in the Fall, so… four months . In any case, the people on the stage left and the stage turned blue again .
“Maru’s coming,” Yoojin noted .
Maru stumbled out from behind the curtain . He carefully walked to the center before looking around, as if he was about to tell them a secret . His movements were well-rehearsed and flowed well .
“The tall kid is better at acting for sure, but my attention is drawn more to Maru . Is it the lights?”
“Don’t know . ”
She was curious about that as well . She came to see Maru as a fan of plays, not as his lover . Maru was standing in front of her, speaking calmly and easily on stage . His character was unique for sure . It only made sense that he would attract attention, but was that really all there was to it? His character was unique, but not to that extent . There were plenty of other characters in the play who looked nice as well . It wasn’t like Maru was significantly better at acting than everyone else, either .
So what made him so much more charming? She thought it was simply because she liked him, but Yoojin felt the same way as her . There had to be a different reason .
‘Tone? Expression? Or synergy with his character?’
What was it? She felt herself getting nervous by the second, she didn’t want to lose to Maru in terms of acting . She was Maru’s girlfriend, but she also didn’t want to lose . Especially not as an actor from Myunghwa high .
“I can’t read the judges’ minds, but they’re going to do pretty well, I’m sure of it . ”
Yoojin sounded confident and she had to agree . She’s followed her dad to watch many plays in the past and she had felt what she’s feeling now whenever she looked at good actors . She put a hand over her chest, she could feel it beating .
‘He’s good . I’m not going to lose, though . ’
It suddenly occurred to her that she’s never thought this while she practiced with Maru .
“Yoojin, what was it like practicing with Maru? Was he like this?”
“Mm… Not at all . He’s completely different . Maru’s very boring when he practices . Not in a bad way . He’s really good and well-balanced . Very good to practice with . But it feels like he’s always missing something . ”
“What about now?”
“You can see for yourself, he’s very different . Maru on the stage looks… kind of dangerous . It feels like he’s walking on a tightrope . You get dragged into focusing on him, because it almost feels like he’s going to make a mistake . More than anything, you can see him having a huge amount of fun . You smile before you even realize it . ”
That was it . She nodded in agreement . Maru had life on the stage, unlike during practice . It almost felt like he was going to charge into the audience right now . Looking at that just made her start focusing on him . His acting was exciting, to say the least .
“Woosung high . I’ll have to tell my seniors about it . ”
“Me too . ”
She balled up her hands into a fist . What would Maru look like when they got on the stage together? She looked forward to it . She wanted to see the actor that was Maru as soon as she could .
‘What the, he’s pretty cool . ’
She turned to look at Yoojin for a second .
“What is it?”
“No, it’s nothing . ”
“Maru’s cool, right?”
Yoojin smiled oddly . That surprised her . She almost denied Yoojin adamantly . No, she almost told Yoojin to stop looking at Maru so positively . She felt her cheeks redden, so she quickly turned away . She was still looking at the stage, though . She didn’t want to miss it .
“You’re really adorable, did you know that?”
Yoojin pinched her cheeks with a grin . She put on a small frown on her face . Right then .
“By the way . ”
“Mm?”
“I’m not the type that gives up even after seeing a goalkeeper . ”
Yoojin looked back at the stage after saying that . She widened her eyes in surprise . The girl said something pretty cryptic . She could only tell herself that Yoojin was talking about something else, but she was staring very intensely at the stage right now .
“He’s mine . ”
She realized what she said only after it got out of her mouth . Yoojin put a hand over her mouth with a grin . That’s when she realized, she’s just been played for .
“You . . . ”
“Shh . The play’s still going on . ”
“ . . . I’ll see you after the play ends . ”
“Any time . I wasn’t lying about that last part though . ”
The girl looked confident, she didn’t look away . They glared at each other for a second before looking away .
“Come on, what about loaning him out?”
“No . ”
“So you guys ARE going out then, aren’t you?”
“That’s . . . ”
“You need to get lessons on dating . You’re totally a newbie in that area, aren’t you? I couldn’t help but tease you . ”
Yoojin grabbed her face before snapping it back towards the stage .
“Your boyfriend’s about to leave the stage . ”
She wanted to say something, but she lost the motivation after seeing that grin on Yoojin’s face . She should just focus on watching the play .
* * *
"Looks like we got a winner here . ”
“Right?”
“Wow . A comedy . And it doesn’t suck, either . It’s been a while since I’ve seen that . ”
The judges nodded in unison . The prelims would continue until the next week, but they would be hard-pressed to find any teams better than Woosung High .
“So it’s Myunghwa High and Woosung High, then?”
“Myunghwa High didn’t even go yet, though . ”
“The kids from that school are very good, remember? I went there last time since I had business at the school, and wow… Their practice room is better than most theaters in Hyehwa station, they even have their own dressing room . The school’s going all out with them . ”
“Makes sense . They’re famous for their acting club, after all . ”
“The prelims should be nothing for them . ”
Everyone nodded yet again .
“But disregarding that for a second, Woosung High really prepared a lot for this . ”
“Yeah . I heard one of their graduates is their instructor?”
“Miss Yang Miso . ”
“Ahh, I know her . She’s very popular at such a young age . She used to be a powerhouse in the Blue Sky theater . So she decided to become an instructor, huh?”
“She probably had a change of mind . It does feel nice seeing a school that used to be famous start to climb back up like this . ”
“Haha, don’t try to score them too well though because of it . ”
The judges finished their conversation with a smile . At the same time, the play ended . The young club members started to come out one by one for a curtain call .
“That one was really good,” one of the judges said, pointing at a tall boy in the group .
Everyone else nodded in agreement .
“And him… we’ll have to watch him, but he does have great potential . It’ll be fun to watch him . ”
The odd character that started talking to the audience out of nowhere . It was a character that could’ve gotten completely ruined, but the boy handled it very well . The judges were able to have a nice time watching the play thanks to it .
“Really? I don’t know . It just felt like I was watching a kid who was unable to control himself . ”
“It does kind of feel like that too . He’s like a diamond in the rough? He’s good to watch, though, since the tall boy supports the rest of the play so well . ”
“That’s true . ”
By then, the club members finished their curtain call . The judges put down their pens and clapped with the rest of the audience .
* * *
"Good job . ”
Miso comforted the club members who returned to the dressing room . She was very satisfied . The club did very well . The judges probably had nothing bad to say about them .
“Phew, it’s over . ”
“No mistakes . Hah . . . ”
The kids finally started relaxing a bit .
“Good work . The next team will come in soon, though, so let’s get ready to leave . ”
Miso wanted more time to talk, but the situation wasn’t so good . They couldn’t take up the space for too long, given the nature of the event . In the end, they had to get out carrying props without even being able to erase their makeup .
“We have to use these props again, so careful!”
It only felt like their work was truly over when they carried everything outside .
“We did well, right?”
“Yeah, we were awesome . ”
Miso called the club members closer .
“We’ll have to wait for the results, but I don’t think we’ll fail at all . We can worry about that when we actually get into the nationals . So let’s go straight back to practice!”
The kids all nodded at the word . They probably felt it at the stage themselves, the power of practice .
“They’ll announce the results next week . Three days later, we’ll go into regionals . Ten days later would be the finals . We don’t have a lot of time . ”
Miso wanted to let them go more than anything else just for today, but she didn’t show it . It wasn’t over just yet .
“Let’s review our work when we go back to school . Think of what you did well and what you did wrong on our way back . ”
“Yes!”
“I’ll say it again, but you guys did tremendously well today . This is only the start though, so stay nervous . ”
“Yes!!”
“Good, let’s get going . From here on out, it will be a race against time . ”
Miso looked back at the city hall, she could feel the kids staring at it with her from behind . Finally, they managed to move forward by one step .
