Chapter 7

At that moment, Maru noticed that the other three in the group were looking at the flat-nosed guy. Almost as if they were paying attention to every one of his words. To think a boy would arouse that sort of a reaction from his friends…‘He might be more influential than that second girl, even.’ Maru thought. These people were truly interesting. The flat-nosed guy seemed to be the type of guy who was way more thoughtful upon further notice. But why was a guy like that working as a stage manager? Well, he probably had his own story. With just four people in the entire club, it must’ve been pretty difficult to do anything.“So just come on over. We’ll explain things later on.” the boy finished.The four people bowed. Unfortunately, not many people in the class seemed interested in the club.“Not a fan, man,” one of the students said after the four left.“How difficult is it if they warn you about it from the start?”“Easy stuff is the best.”The four seemed to have failed to really get anyone. When Maru looked over, he found them cheering each other on. They were probably planning on making rounds across the entire floor.“Yo, Maru,” asked Dojin. Maru turned to look over at his friend.“What’s up?”“Doesn’t this seem fun?”“The acting club?”“Yeah.”“You’re gonna do it?”“Dunno yet. So…”But just as Dojin was about to finish, the English teacher tapped at the board lightly.“Now, now. We can continue the small talk later. Flip to page 15. What day is it today?” she asked.“It’s the 11th, ma’am.”“Number 11, stand up and read the first sentence.”The class resumed. Dojin immediately shut his mouth and started paying attention. Maru took a look at the list of clubs in front of him again. The acting club. Everything else on the paper became smaller and smaller until the only thing on that paper he saw was the word ‘acting’. ‘The acting club...’ he found himself thinking. Right below it was the movie review club. Joining that club would let him spend his first year leisurely.‘Leisurely...’ leisurely. He tried whispering the word to himself. What was his life of 45 years like? The question that he thought of on the way back home hit him again. How did he want to live?“...Fun.” the answer reared its head from his mouth almost unconsciously.

* * *‘Looks like a bunch of zombies.’ Maru thought as he looked over the entire class. The state of the classroom after the fifth period looked like a bunch of zombies struggling to stay awake. As expected of English class… it was stronger than even most sleeping pills.“Yo, Maru, want to check out the acting club?” Dojin asked.“You mean the room?”“They told us we could come so how about it? You said you didn’t choose a club yet, right?”“Yeah.”“Hell yeah, let’s go!”Dojin seemed just a little bit excited. Well, quite a bit, actually.[Hell yes! Thanks Maru! I didn’t want to go alone.]The bubble floated above Dojin’s head briefly before disappearing.“Let’s go after school, then.” Maru said.“Sure.”Dojin was humming happily to himself. Maru was starting to figure out how this word bubble thing worked.‘I need to look at their eyes first.’He could always see the word bubbles out of the people whose eyes met with his. This seemed to be the first condition. Second, the person in question needed to think about him. At least, that's what it seemed like. All of Dojin’s thoughts seemed to have been directed at him.‘Same with Daemyung.’ Maru realized.Maru called Dojin over and started staring at the boy’s eyes. Dojin seemed a bit confused, but he didn’t look away. Ten seconds of staring after…

<“What’s up?” Dojin asked.

“It’s nothing.” Maru said, as he put a hand over his chin.Dojin must’ve thought of something just then, amongst the lines of ‘what’s up with this guy?’ But no word bubble appeared.“Hey, Dojin.”“Yeah?”“Did you think of anything when I was looking at you?”The boy looked confused by the question, but he shook his head in denial.“Of course not. What’s there to think about?”Ah. Now Maru understood. Friends wouldn’t think something like ‘what’s wrong with this kid’ between each other. No, to begin with, most people don’t usually think deeply when going about their lives. Maru looked down at his hand. He was playing around with a red pen in it. Of course, he wasn’t actively thinking ‘let’s play with this pen’ as he did it. He just did it out of habit.“Hey, Dojin.” he asked.“What up?”“Stand up a bit.”“The hell are you trying to do?” Dojin said, standing up anyway.“What did you think just now?”“Think of what now? I just stood up.”“Right?”“Flipping heck, is this because of the MP3?”Maru turned to look at Dojin right there. But there was no word bubble still. Was there a different condition as well?[Ah, this guy’s probably in trouble too, huh. Ugh, I should tell my mom about this.]The word bubble came just then, allowing Maru to draw a single conclusion. The word bubbles only appeared when a person thought of something specific. “No need to tell your mom. I’m fine,” Maru responded.“No, but if you keep looking at me like th… W-wait wait wait, what? How did...”“How do you think? Just a smart guess, man.”“...Did I look too obvious?”“Don’t worry about it. Can I have a piece of candy, by the way? And just forget about the MP3. I can’t believe you’re still worried about it.”“My dad’s always told me that if I care about a person, I have to treat them with utmost respect. You’re a friend, so you deserve it.” said Dojin as he threw him a piece of candy.Maru received it with a smile on his face. Dojin sounded like he grew up under a wonderful father. He agreed with the sentiment completely. The more you value a person, the more you should respect them. “What a sentence,” he said.“Agreed. Ah, anyway, are we going to the acting club or not?”“We are.”Maru realized that he really was treating his new life differently. In the past, he might have felt an interest in the acting club, but just wouldn’t have gone. He would just have said something along the lines of ‘looks fun, but too hard’ and turned away. But Maru knew now… that this was the only chance he had in life where he was free to do anything. He couldn’t live freely in college because by then, he had to start worrying about entering the real world. In that case… shouldn’t he do everything he could to try to live as fun a life as he could now?A small smile crept up on Maru’s face. He had made a decision. He threw the club list away. He didn’t need it anymore.“Ah, crap. Homeroom time.”The bell rang alongside someone’s complaint. Maru drove off all his sleep with that as the signal. He really couldn’t afford to sleep in this one. Getting hit by a cue stick was a big no no for him.

* * *The classes ended, and all the students went off to their cleaning areas. Those who weren’t assigned to areas ran off to the front entrance. Yoonjung ran for the club room instead. She wondered to herself how many people would come to visit.She hoped to see a few. She went up to the clubroom at the fourth floor of the school. The lights were still off. Yoonjung squeezed through the door to get inside.“I should clean this all up, first.” she found herself saying.The club room was quite large. But despite that, all the props and costumes inside made it look small. There were four hangars full of costumes, even.“I guess… Cleaning all of it’s a bit of a stretch.”When would she even finish? Yoonjung grew sick of cleaning the place up before she even started. She didn’t notice because she got used to the place, but… If the newcomers were to see this…[How dirty. I’m not going to join.][So complicated. I don’t think I’ll join.][What the hell? Smells. I won’t join.]With multiple voices of imaginary club members streaming in her head, she immediately pulled up her sleeves.She can do this!The club room reverberated with loud noises.