Aram stretched out her arms and laid back. They had just finished their third run. By now, she was used to seeing the sunset at school. Though, it did feel quite good since it felt like she was having a proper school life.

“Aram.”

Jiyoon was startled and pulled down her shirt. It seemed that it rolled up as she lied down. This girl was really feminine. Aram thought that she should learn from her. In her lying position, Aram bowed her waist and flicked her body up. When she stood up with a rebound, someone clapped.

“You’re good.”

It was Maru-seonbae.

“You should try as well. I think you should be able to do it.”

“I don’t like wasting my energy,” Maru said as he lied down.

It was break time, and everyone seemed tired. It wasn’t that surprising since they had been practicing ever since school finished. Although they weren’t using their bodies physically intensively, the consumption of stamina was considerable since they had to be conscious about all of their moves. Aram felt a similar level of fatigue as when she was training at the dojo.

“Suyeon-unni isn’t coming these days.”

“Well, she has her drama shoots. We should be thankful that she comes here from time to time. After all, she’s doing this for free,” Maru spoke.

Aram nodded in agreement.

“There’s not long until the competition.”

“That’s true.”

“There must some pressure to go on stage, right?”

“A lot, probably.”

“Haa, it’s fine during practice, but it’s strangely more tiring when I stand in front of people. Even though I perform in front of people for the advancing in dan[1].”

“It’s because you’re not used to it.”

“Do you get nervous as well, seonbae?”

“No.”

“Wow!”

Aram raised her thumbs up. She looked for another conversation partner since Maru had closed his eyes. Then, she saw Daemyung-seonbae who was leaning against a wall, writing something down on his note. Aram glanced at Daemyung once before looking at Jiyoon.

‘I wonder when these two will make progress.’

If she could, she would just put them in a classroom with no one else and lock the doors up, but it was obvious that Jiyoon would fall into panic if she did so, so she hadn’t put it into practice. However, she was thinking of putting it into practice if they maintained their status quo. It was frustrating to watch from the sides.

“Tell him that you want to watch a movie together on the weekend.”

“Wh-why so suddenly?”

“Because I’m bored.”

“Stop teasing me,” Jiyoon said with a pout.

This girl was no good, so she had to change her target. Just as Aram started crawling towards Daemyung, someone grabbed her by the ankle.

“If you’re going to tease him, do it later. He’s busy.”

It was Maru.

“You weren’t sleeping?”

“Let’s take a rest, okay? I get that you’re full of energy, but you should rest when you can.”

Aram twitched her nose before returning to her original place. She felt bored. Yoojin wasn’t here today either. She said that she couldn’t be here because they had to prepare for their festival.

“Bosung Girls High’s festival sounded like it would be a lot of fun. I wish I could go there.”

“It happens on a weekday so we can’t.”

“Really? Oh wait, we have a school festival of our own, don’t we? Seonbae, when’s our festival?”

“Before summer holidays probably.”

“I know that much.”

At that moment, Daemyung told her that it was held before the preliminaries for the acting competition. Now that she thought about it, she did see some of her classmates making a roulette for the festival. They apparently belonged to the board game club.

“Don’t we need to do something as well?”

“Can’t we just skip?” Maru, who was lying down, spoke.

Aram stood up and shook her head vigorously.

“Students should fulfill their roles as students. This is a festival we’re talking about, you know? A festival!”

“Oh! A festival!”

Bangjoo, who was doing pushups on the side, also joined the fray. Aram looked at Maru. Maru avoided her eyes. Then, she looked at Daemyung. Daemyung also smiled awkwardly and looked away. These seniors were no good.

“Let’s do something as well.”

“Youth shines the brightest when it stays still.”

“Maru-seonbae. This is a festival that only happens once!”

“For us, it’s once, but for you three, it’s twice. There’s another one in your third year.”

“But there’s only one festival as first years! Third years’ festival is a different festival.”

“Haa.”

Maru lied sideways and covered his ears. Aram changed targets this time. Now that it came down to this, she could only persuade Daemyung.

“Daemyung-seonbae! Jiyoon wants to do something for the festival!”

At that moment, Aram saw that Daemyung’s eyes were shaking. She faintly smiled. Jiyoon became flustered and told her to stop, but she just ignored her. It was a festival that only happened once. She wanted to participate and enjoy it.

“Sh-should we do something? Practice is going smoothly, and we should have some fun too. I think it’s a good opportunity.”

Daemyung looked towards Dowook. Dowook just told him ‘do whatever you want’. There was only one person left. Aram walked on her knees towards Maru. She also dragged Jiyoon with her. She glanced at Maru, who was covering his ears with his hands.

“...What are you going to do?”

“We’re gonna decide that now.”

“Ah, my head. Daemyung, I give up. Do whatever you want. I’ll do whatever you tell me to.”

“Yes!”

Aram raised her fist in victory.

* * *

Bangjoo became fired up at the word festival. He thought that it would be fun to prepare for the festival with his friends. Since he was in the acting club, he wondered if they were going to do a play.

Just then,

“Ahn Bangjoo.”

Maru-seonbae, who had rolled all the way towards him, sat up and spoke to him.

“Let’s have a smo… I mean, some drinks outside. Daemyung, I’ll go buy something to eat with Bangjoo.”

“Okay. Oh, what about money?”

“It’s fine.”

Bangjoo followed Maru out of the classroom. They walked down the central staircase to the 1st floor. The corridor was empty. He was familiar with this scene now.

“Do you like festivals as well?”

“I do. It’s a festival after all.”

“I see.”

“You don’t like it, seonbae?”

“Well, I neither like it nor dislike it.”

He bought a canned drink from the vending machine in front of the school cafeteria. It was a chocolate drink. He drank a sip before running across the corridor to leave the school building when Maru asked,

“Have you talked with your sister?”

Bangjoo stopped running and looked back at Maru. He could somewhat understand what he was talking about.

“Yes, I have.”

“I was worried because I might have interfered between you two unnecessarily. After all, I did interfere with another’s household matters unintentionally.”

“Not at all. I don’t think of it like that. Isn’t the fact that you are paying attention to us and worrying for us a sign that you’re treating us as important people? It was good because I could have a proper talk with my sister. We got to know that we haven’t exactly told each other a lot about ourselves.”

“Really? That puts me at ease then.”

Bangjoo faintly smiled and watched as Maru walked ahead of him. He truly felt thankful. To both his sister and to himself, the events that occurred that day was a memory that both of them did not want to look back at. When his sister talked about the events that happened on that day, Bangjoo, though he didn’t even know why, sighed in relief. For the first time, his sister told him what happened that day. Bangjoo got to listen to what kind of vulgarities she had to endure as a woman. It was frustrating and heart wrenching to listen to, but her sister just talked about it calmly. Whether it was before or now, she was a strong woman.

His sister was worried that the events that happened that day might have traumatized him and consequently turned him into someone that unintentionally raised his voice. She was also worried that he might be forcing himself to smile. Bangjoo didn’t think that was the case, but when he looked back in retrospect, he thought that that might indeed have happened. Although he looked like he was showing his frank emotions, he might have been covering everything up below that smile of his. When they did the one-man act at the café before, Miso had told him that his emotions were dull.

Regarding that, Bangjoo decided to think about it as well. Although he wasn’t dissatisfied with his current personality, he did want to fix it if his true self was suppressed by the bad memories that happened that day. He didn’t like leaving things alone that he knew were wrong.

“Do you have anything you want to eat?” Maru, who was walking ahead, asked after turning around.

Bangjoo replied with a smile.

“Dumplings.”

* * *

“But she really did get into a fight about something trivial.”

Hearing Aram’s words, Jiyoon tilted her head and looked at her. Fight? What was this about?

“Oh, you weren’t there because you were running an errand. Two of the girls got into a fight during lunchtime. People started watching them since they were bored, but what a spectacle that was. They were fighting over something like ‘this oppa and that oppa aren’t on good terms’ or something.”

“What do you mean?”

Daemyung, who had been quietly listening all this time, asked.

“Seonbae, do you know a group called The Five?”

“Is that a singer band?”

“Well, an idol group to be specific. I overheard some of the girls in class talking about them, but apparently they went separate ways because something happened in their group. They started fighting over who’s right and who’s wrong. One of them is actually the quiet kid in class, but seriously, it was no joke. Though, they did shut up after seeing that they grabbed everyone else’s attention.”

“Ah, I think I saw that on TV as well. I heard that the lawsuit was over or something. Though, I don’t know the specifics.”

Jiyoon was also aware of the group ‘The Five’. They were a popular idol band made up of 5 people, and they broke up recently. It was big news in the entertainment media, so she also knew the general gist of the situation.

“As far as I know, they broke up because they had some trouble with the agency,” Jiyoon spoke.

“With the agency?”

Daemyung looked at her. Perhaps he had gotten interested. Jiyoon remembered the magazine article that she once read.

“I briefly read it from a magazine, but apparently they are breaking up because of unfair contracts or something.”

“They got into a fight with the agency? Those girls were fighting over which oppa was in the wrong or something like that. That’s strange,” Aram spoke as she narrowed her eyebrows.

“Well, I think that’s because some of them decided to stick with the agency and some of them decided to leave. I think it was ‘Soul’ that some of the members were going to. I think that’s what you’re talking about. The team did split up.”

“I see now.”

Aram nodded her head.

“You’re quite… knowledgeable. Do you like idols?” Daemyung asked in a careful voice.

Jiyoon quickly shook her head.

“No! I don’t! I just came across the article by chance. I mean it.”

“Hey, if you don’t like idols, you don’t like idols. Why go so far to make excuses? It’s as if you’re conscious about someone. Pfft.”

Aram covered her mouth and laughed. Jiyoon became teary-faced when she saw that Aram had a playful smile. Although she was a good friend, she felt flustered whenever she acted like that. Last time, she had even pushed her back saying that she should confess. Although she had told her to stop, Aram looked like she was still looking for opportunities to strike. She was thankful that Aram was supporting her, but she still didn’t have the courage to confess just yet.

Jiyoon glanced at Daemyung. She wondered if he was disappointed in her. Fortunately, Daemyung just smiled like his usual self and replied ‘I see’. Seeing that, Jiyoon forgot about the people around her and stared at Daemyung for a while.

“Ehem!”

Aram coughed. Jiyoon was startled and turned around to see Aram. Dowook, who was sitting next to Daemyung, squinted and looked at her. The always cold-looking mouth curved upward slightly. It was an ominous smile. The reason it felt all the more ominous was because Aram and Dowook looked at each other and nodded their heads at the same time.

“Aram.”

“Yes, seonbae.”

“Should we get a drink as well?”

“Sounds good!”

Then, the two abruptly stood up. Jiyoon quickly shook her head while grabbing onto Aram’s pants. She was clearly telling them not to go, but Aram just flicked her hand off and turned around.

“A romantic time between the two of you.”

Those words hit Jiyoon’s ears. Even Dowook, who didn’t like playing along with pranks usually gave a thumbs up as he left. Daemyung was just reading the notes he was always looking at during break time, so he didn’t catch them leaving.

“Huh? What about the others?”

Daemyung raised his head and asked.

“B-b-both of them left.”

“Wh-what?”

“....”

“....”

Jiyoon didn’t know where to look. Was she supposed to look at Daemyung? Or the ceiling? Or the floor? Then, her eyes met Daemyung’s. Daemyung’s ears had turned bright red. That made Jiyoon’s heart flutter.

“U-uhm, seonbae.”

“Y-yeah?”

Jiyoon was reminded of Aram’s advice. Watching a movie together. She gulped and clenched her fist tightly. She thought that she should be able to say it since they were alone together.

“Would you like to-!”

At that moment, the back door suddenly opened. The one that showed up was Maru. He was holding a plastic bag in each hand. Jiyoon was well aware that she shouldn’t resent him, and that Maru did nothing wrong, but she still ended up looking at him with resentment. Bangjoo, who was following in, also flinched and stopped on the spot.

Jiyoon felt as though time had stopped. She moved her eyes and looked at Daemyung. This clueless seonbae of hers was just looking at the food in Maru’s hands with a happy face. Seeing that, Jiyoon was a little angry. Right now, she felt like she could tell him ‘idiot’ straight to his face.

“Why are you just standing there? Oh, and what’s that?”

Daemyung asked. His voice was slightly excited.

“This? Uh, dumplings.”

“Dumplings? Kimchi dumplings or meat dumplings?”

“Both. Uh, but, hm….”

“What is it?”

“I feel like I’ve sinned. Wait a sec.”

Maru slowly closed the door. Jiyoon’s jaws were agape. She was sighing.

[1] She’s talking about her martial arts, which according to c214, she did Taekwondo, Judo and Kendo.