Chapter 12

The first play Maru has ever experienced was a comedy about a troubled family. He bought the ticket during his college years, and sat down with his friends at a small theater. The plot appeared complicated when he was watching it, but it turned out to be rather simple. The alcoholic father wasn’t actually an alcoholic, and the mother who always shouted was actually a big coward. The son who always swore in the house was actually a gentle soul who volunteered, and the daughter who always said she hated her family actually loved her family. The play ended with the family all coming to a mutual understanding with each other. Being able to see each and every expression, breathing, and beads of sweat from all the actors came as a pretty big shock to Maru at the time. After that day, Maru’s watched plays pretty frequently. The reason why he decided to be a road manager to begin with was because he liked plays.“Plays, huh,” he said, looking down at his desk.There was a time when he wanted to become an actor. For a very short while, he’s admired actors on the stage very much. They looked like they were content with their lives. To Maru, who was struggling to find jobs at the time, they couldn’t have looked cooler. Of course, he gave up upon realization the lives they led off the stage.“Hey, you,” Dojin said.It was right before the start of the 4th class. The class before lunch.“You look really absent minded sometimes.”“It’s not that I look absent minded. I AM absent minded. I’m sleepy.”“No, tell me for real now. Did you...”[Masturbate all night?]A word bubble popped up above Dojin’s head, making Maru smile a little in surprise.““The hell are you laughing for?” ““Because I masturbated. Why do you ask?”“What?”Dojin frowned in confusion.“By the way, did you get the message?” Maru changed the topic. Thank goodness Dojin wasn’t the inquisitive type.“About us getting together after school?”“Yeah.”“Course I did. Why are we getting together, though?”“Who knows.”Maru thought about it some more during the class, but he didn’t really get an answer. Eventually, the class ended, and the announcement for first years to go to the cafeteria played. They were running down the corridors as if a war broke out. “Damn, look at them run,” Dojin said. He and Maru were the only ones left in class.Eating slowly became a habit for them. There was one more person, actually. Daemyung slowly crept up to join them.“Ah, I’m kind of scared,” Daemyung said, unexpectedly. “What for?” Dojin asked.“I’m worried about what the seniors might do.”“You worry too much.”“But you saw before, didn’t you? That pipe.”“That was pretty scary.”“Do you think they’d really hit us?”“No way.”Maru butted into the conversation.“Joonghyuk might hit us for real, though.”“That doesn’t sound surprising.”Dojin and Daemyung nodded in agreement.“Ah, I asked a third year about the acting club a few days ago, right?” Dojin said, motioning the other two closer. “Apparently something happened last winter. That’s why all the third years and most of the second years left.”“Really? What kind of an accident? Did they fight…?”“I don’t know the specifics. The senior didn’t know much about it either.”“Accident, huh.”Maru thought of a few of the possibilities. First, there was some trouble caused by two students dating. But this school didn’t care much about romance. Even the teachers mentioned students dating each other every once in a while. Dating was fine as long as it didn’t affect grades. Even Yoonjung was fine with it, unless if there was trouble with dating in the club. Then… a fight? Maybe. Or an incident might have happened.“Should we ask?”“When it’s time.”“Might be better not to...”The three of them said as they looked out the window.