Maru heard the news that the shoot had finished. After putting down his phone, he smiled and looked up at the ceiling. It was all over now. Though, there was still the post-production left which was more important than the shoot itself, meaning that there was still quite a lot of time until the release, but it still meant that the rough sketch was done. He was quite proud of the fact that his first work was finished being shot without a hitch. He looked forward to how he would appear in the movie in that short scene he had put all his effort into.

“Did something good happen?” Daemyung asked from the side.

“The shoot is over, apparently.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Congratulations.”

“I’m not the one that’s supposed to be congratulated.”

“But still, you participated in the movie. I think you’re worth congratulating,” Daemyung made a V with his fingers.

“Then you’ve done a movie, and now it’s a drama?”

“Both as extras though.”

“Hey, you still get to appear in them. It’s proof that you’re working your way up. Oh yeah, when’s the drama episode you shot before going on air?”

“They said that it’s done in a two-week interval, so probably today.”

“Looks like I should watch it then.”

“You don’t have to go out of your way to watch it. It’ll only be a brief appearance anyway.”

“You said you get hit, right?”

“Yup.”

Dojin, who was listening to the conversation from the side, spoke,

“First it’s a delinquent, and now you’re getting hit. When are you going to be the cool character?”

“I don’t know.”

While they were chatting, the class president entered the classroom and told everyone that there was no homeroom at the end of the day. As tomorrow was a full club activities day, there was no acting club practice today either. It was the perfect day to go home early and daze out while lying on his bed. Just as they left the classroom, a girl wearing a school uniform was waiting for them. It was none other than Yoojin. The boys in the class started whispering among themselves.

Maru approached Yoojin.

“There’s no practice today.”

“I know.”

“Then why are you here? Looking like that too.”

“Help us out a little.”

“With what?”

“The acting club at my school is practicing, and I want you to help. I’ve left the acting club, but I’m still their senior.”

“Now you’re confusing me even more. We don’t have anything to teach you guys. I mean, you guys are better than us.”

“No, for this specific instance, you guys are the perfect people for the job.”

What was this about? Maru tilted his head and stared at Yoojin.

“The play my school is preparing is ‘I’ve been really wronged’.”

* * *

Maru had a look at the time. It was five o’clock. Usually at this time, he would’ve arrived at home, had a shower, and would be eating dinner with the side dishes in the fridge. After that, he would be lying on his bed, reading a book or something. Yet right now, he was standing inside the train.

“I told you. Isn’t that funny?”

A high-pitched tone entered his ears. Maru glanced at Yoojin, who was holding hands with Aram and Jiyoon with a bright smile on her face. This girl’s friendliness was fatal.

She had gotten close to the members of the acting club during the times she came to his school to watch them practice. The kind Jiyoon was the first one to be poached by her. Following that, Aram, who was on close terms with Jiyoon, went over to her side as well. Naturally, the only remaining first year, Bangjoo, started hanging out with her as well, and eventually, she was at the point where she was practically a member of their acting club.

Yoojin pinched Aram’s thighs while giggling. In front of them were Daemyung and Dowook. The entire acting club was going over to Bosung Girl’s High School right now. No, this was kidnapping. Maru thought that everyone here was having signs of Stockholm syndrome.

Maru shook his head when Yoojin grinned at him. An hour ago, when Yoojin asked him to come with her, he told her that he couldn’t be bothered. Indeed, he couldn’t be bothered. Actually, a bigger reason that he didn’t want to go was because of the fact that they were preparing the same play.

If two schools decided to do the same play in the acting competition, the judges would definitely drop one of them. The acting competition first held regional preliminaries and then finals in Seoul. If there were two of the same pieces, they would definitely drop one of them during the preliminaries. Was there a reason to help a competitor? Of course not. He was about to refuse Yoojin’s request but she turned to Daemyung for help instead.

Maru sighed as he looked outside the subway. He had taken Daemyung and ran for his life at that moment. Daemyung, who was grabbed by Yoojin, ended up accepting after hearing her story. A competition in good faith, he said; beautiful rivals, he said. Maru clutched his head and shook his head when Daemyung came to him with those words. He then looked towards Dowook, who hated doing things that he didn’t want to do, but he showed interest in the fact that Yoojin’s high school was Bosung ‘Girls’ High. Maru thought that he had to take a picture of him at that moment and send it to his sister, telling her that this was the true face of the boy she liked.

The first years accepted without any complaints at all. Maru clicked his tongue when the first years replied with the words ‘of course!’ in a cheerful voice when Yoojin asked them for help. It felt like the guest had become the master.

He told Daemyung that helping them might bring losses to their own acting club, but he replied that helping them out will be an opportunity to study as well, and that there wouldn’t be any problems. Following that, he confidently said that he had the confidence to win if they were doing the same play. Maru liked his ambitiousness, but he didn’t like variables, so he thought that Daemyung was a little complacent.

Despite that, he also smiled in one corner of his heart. This was what youth was about. How could he not smile when they helped out their friends just because they’re friends rather than considering the benefits?

That was why he raised the white flag and tagged along. He would be the one to slap them back into shape if they lost to Bosung Girls High during the competition itself.

* * *

“But are us boys allowed into a girls high school?” This question came up on Maru’s mind as he got off the subway. He looked at Yoojin.

“We’ll have to go in in secret.”

“What?”

“So, the fences next to the school gates are slightly lower than the fences in other places. We’ll go through there, so that we don’t get caught.”

“Hey hey. Pack up, everyone. Let’s go back.”

“I was joking! I already got permission.”

“How did you know if we’d be coming or not?”

“You’re here so that’s not a meaningful question!”

Yoojin smiled suspiciously. Maru decided to call her the mini-Miso from today onwards.

They got on the bus near the subway station.

“Over here.”

Bosung Girls High stood tall right next to the apartment complex. Unlike Woosung High, which was an engineering high school, lights were still on in class thanks to the presence of students studying after school. Girls were leaving through the front gates. It seemed that they were going to the nearby restaurants to have dinner. They walked past some girls that were walking arm-in-arm, arriving at the entrance. Aram and Jiyoon were able to walk past the school gates without any feeling of rejection, but the rest couldn’t.

Were they supposed to rejoice at the fact that they could enter a no-boys zone? Maru crossed the entrance after seeing Yoojin waving at him to come. The girls glanced at him once before just going their ways. Perhaps it was the fact that he wasn’t wearing a school uniform that made them disinterested.

However, the situation changed after entering the school building. The girls all stared at the boys in the corridor. Their gazes were quite sharp. Yoojin had to explain several times to the teachers they met along the way. Most of the time, the teachers cheered her on, saying that she could go. The reaction was completely opposite to how it would be in Woosung High. If it was Woosung High, the teachers would’ve told them not to cause any trouble after hearing that it was for the acting club.

They walked upstairs to the fourth floor and walked to the end of the corridor when they were greeted with a passageway to another building.

“The entrance to the annex building is under construction, so we need to go through here.”

They followed Yoojin through the passage. The walls of the annex had paint that was still shiny. It seemed that it hadn’t been that long since it was built.

“Are the schools in Seoul all this good financially?”

He was pondering to himself, but Yoojin replied to him,

“It’s the power of independent schools.”

They climbed down to the 3rd floor in the annex building, where they could see girls busily moving around. They were also holding a huge banner.

“It’s the school festival soon.”

It also smelled like some tteokbokki. Now that Maru thought about it, Woosung High also had its own festival before the summer holidays. It was named the Woosung Festival, and it was only held biennially, so there wasn’t one last year.

Yoojin heavily pushed on the door on the left wall of the 3rd floor. The girls who were practicing inside blinked their eyes and looked towards the door.

“I’m here!”

Yoojin entered like a general. Maru walked in first to lead the way. Since it was a girls high school, the club members were naturally all girls. Their club room, or perhaps practice room, was half the size of Woosung High’s 5th floor hall. It was large enough for all the members to freely run around in, so it looked like a good place to practice. There was a soft mat on the floor, so they had to take their shoes off at the entrance. It was a drastic contrast to their own environment at Woosung High where they were occupying an unused classroom.

“Wow.”

The other club members all entered while exclaiming. The members of Bosung High’s acting club started cleaning up immediately. It seemed that they were notified of this beforehand.

“These are my juniors.”

“Hello.”

Over twenty girls greeted at the same time. Maru wondered if they were all first years and had a look at Daemyung. He didn’t have a good expression as though he didn’t like standing in front of so many girls. Maru pushed his back. He was supposed to be their representative here.

“And he’s Park Daemyung, the club president of the acting club at Woosung High. He’s a 2nd year, and… you told me you didn’t have a girlfriend, right? The girls here are all kind and pretty so take your pick.”

Yoojin smirked. Although she was saying that, she was looking at Jiyoon. This girl clearly knew what was going on and yet was doing this on purpose.

“Hello.”

For some reason, the girls looked very strict. Maru thought that the atmosphere would be more lax and elegant, but they looked like soldiers that just finished boot camp. Their eyes looked like they were about to shout their rank and names.

“Are they usually like this, or are they scared of you?”

“Think of them as being polite,” Yoojin spoke.

And so, they had a brief time for introduction with the ‘polite’ members of Bosung High. 20 girls' names flashed by, and it was honestly impossible to remember them all. After the introduction period, they went into practice immediately. The girls quickly cleaned up the place and started preparing for the play.

“Where are the 2nd years?”

“They probably went home because there’s no practice today.”

“How about them? There are twenty people here even though there’s no practice?”

“The 2nd years and first years that are getting ready for the competition aren’t here, and the girls here today are practicing for the play at the school festival.”

“The school festival?”

“What, you thought I was asking you for help on the play for the competition?”

“You weren’t?”

“We have our pride you know? And do you think I’m that insensitive to ask you to do such a thing? A lot of first years entered this year, leading to the discussion that we should try doing a play for both the competition and the school festival. I originally wanted to go to Myunghwa High, but they’re elites. Meaning, your girlfriend is actually very busy.”

“And that’s why you came to us?”

“Yes.”

Maru smiled bitterly. He was worried for nothing. He felt much better now. Daemyung was smiling as well. Although he had said all those fancy words, he must have felt very worried inside after all.

“But you care about them quite a lot considering that you left the club.”

“Of course. I might have left because I’m busy, but I used to be a member here. For now, watch them do theirs first and show them your version. I think that will give them the general gist of it.”

Practice began under Yoojin’s guidance. 6 out of the 20 people came out and started acting. The rest just separated into two groups and sat on each side.

“How about the others?”

“We’re gonna pick people to do the play tomorrow. There’s team one and team two.”

“You really are on a completely different scale to us.”

“We’re nothing compared to Myunghwa High though. They have actual celebrities in their acting club.”

“Really?”

“How else do you think they’re sweeping the prizes all over the country? They have several idols there as well, as well as child actors. They even have a separate class that houses all of them. Rather than that, it’s starting now. You look at that girl over there. She’s the company employee.”

Maru nodded before looking at the girl with short hair.

* * *

“Let’s stop there for now! We’ll take a break.”

She nodded her head hearing the club president’s words. When she looked outside, she saw the moon. So much time had passed already. She drank some water before heaving out a deep breath. Everyone was nervous since the nation-wide competition was just half a month away. They got the grand prize last year, the year before that, and the year before that as well. There were a flag and several trophies in one corner of the clubroom. The trophy was given to them, but the flag was supposed to be kept by the school that won the competition for just that year, meaning that they would have to return the flag if they didn’t win the competition again this summer. The flag had been with them for several years now, so it would be a pity if it disappeared.

This was why the seniors were very strict during practice as well - in order to maintain the tradition of winning the grand prize.

“First years, go buy some kimbap and some snacks.”

The club president spoke as she handed out some money. It seemed that she was planning to have a late night meal at the school as well.

She started stretching on the spot. She was the type to cool down if she dazed off. Just as she leaned against the wall and stretched her legs out, the club president came by and pressed down on her back.

“You got your line wrong once back there.”

“Urgh, sorry about that.”

“The competition is right in front of us, we can’t have the main character making mistakes on us.”

The club president let go after chuckling. She smiled as she looked up at the president.