Chapter 59
Chapter 59
When Miso entered the auditorium, the club members all held conflicted expressions . They looked like they were excited to see the lady again, but at the same time, they looked scared of what they had coming for them .
“Instructor!”
“We thought you were busy with plays . ”
They seemed more excited than anything though, seeing how they rushed over to see her . Miso grinned, explaining how the play she got involved in spiraled into a complete mess .
“And that’s why I came here to torture you kids for another half year . Nice, right?”
“Yes!”
“Wait, did you dye your hair, instructor?”
Miso’s previously blonde hair was now black .
“Well, just because . ”
Miso answered the question pa.s.sively, completely disregarding its relevance .
“Now now, we’re going to practice pretty much immediately, so you better be ready . I heard from Taesik that you’re going to change the play for this compet.i.tion?”
“Yes . We wanted to try something new,” Yoonjung answered .
“Up for a challenge, huh? Nice . Was there a genre you were thinking of?”
“A comedy . We thought there’d be a lot to learn, since we didn’t even touch comedy the last time . ”
“Comedy, huh? Those are usually challenging . Fine, there are a few of those for teenagers, so we might as well go with that . ”
The atmosphere of the club came together once Miso appeared . Her loud voice had a power to gather people . Mesmerized by that voice, the pa.s.sion and energy for acting came back to their eyes .
“You weren’t just playing around, were you?”
“Of course not . ”
“We worked hard!”
Miso stepped into the middle of the auditorium with the students . The kids followed her like a bunch of baby ducks following their mother . Miso made a great center for the club .
Maru gave them a nod from the side . He was standing at a sweet spot where he couldn’t be seen, but still could hear everything clearly . A perfect spot . He glanced at Miso from behind Geunseok, and shot her a smile when their eyes met .
For a brief second, he saw Miso’s mouth curl up into a smile . She seemed to be telling him that she would get him this time around .
“Wait just a second . I have a few scripts for comedic plays in my car . You guys listen to the basic story and tell me which one you want . Maru, follow me . ”
“Yes . ”
Even before the break, Maru’s job was to lug things around every once in a while . The moment they stepped outside the auditorium, Miso started talking .
“What are you going to do? Planning on being the spectator this time, too?”
Maru nodded .
“Things are going to get awkward if I join in . I’ll just stay in the side making props or something . ”
“Oh, so that’s how you’re going to do this, huh?”
Miso stepped down the stairs without saying another word . When they stepped out into the parking lot, they were greeted with Miso’s foreign car . Miso opened the trunk, revealing a cardboard box inside .
“What’s this?”
“s.h.i.+rts . ”
“s.h.i.+rts?”
Maru opened the box, which was filled with black hoodies . The left breast of which had the words ‘Blue Sky’ embroidered in Chinese characters .
“I got inspiration from my theater’s s.h.i.+rts . ”
Maru thought back at the black s.h.i.+rts the actors were wearing back at the Blue Sky theater .
“You basically just copied it . ”
“Eh, copy, inspiration, same thing . It’s good though, right?”
“It’s nice . The kids should like this . ”
“You?”
“Another casual clothing for my collection . This’ll be nice . ”
“It’s expensive, don’t just treat it like something casual . Now, now, you go up first . I have to find the scripts . ”
“Yes . ”
Maru stepped up to the fifth floor with the box . Were these s.h.i.+rts were Miso’s way of apologizing to the club? After all, she thought the club failing in their first compet.i.tion was her fault . He had heard something about her apologizing to the club last time they met, but perhaps she still felt a bit sorry inside .
“Take whichever one that fits you . ”
Maru put the box in front of Joonghyuk . The club members all shouted in excitement when they noticed what was inside . They all took off their old gym clothes and put on their new uniforms .
“Wow, fits perfectly . ”
“Mine’s a bit loose, I think I like this better . ”
“Same . ”
“It even has words on the back!”
The twelve of them all found s.h.i.+rts that fit them . They fit pretty well .
“They look good on you,” Miso noted, stepping into the auditorium .
“Thank you!”
“We’ll treasure it!”
The club members answered, still fixated on their new clothes . Maru put a hand over his jersey . It had a decent thickness to it . The material was high quality, and the embroidery looked pretty beautiful . This had to be expensive .
“Nice, you look good in those uniforms . Don’t cause any accidents while wearing those, though, you hear?”
“Yes!”
“Now now, get over here . If we want to partic.i.p.ate in the October compet.i.tion and then the December one, we need to work really hard . ”
“October?”
“We’re going to partic.i.p.ate at the one hosted by Gyeongi province . And then we can partic.i.p.ate in the winter one . We didn’t get anything for the compet.i.tion in spring, so might as well try everything we can get our hands on during this semester . Understood?”
She didn’t look like she was open to any opposition . A compet.i.tion in October, and then one in December… It didn’t look too bad on paper . Maru nodded to himself . This was very much like Miso .
Miso threw two scripts down on the floor .
‘Critical Ma.s.s’ and ‘The People of Dalseok-dong’ .
“Choose one you want to do . Critical Ma.s.s is about what would happen if someone wins it big-time in a lottery, and The People of Dalseok-dong is about what happens when a strange family moves into Dalseok-dong . They’re both fun, but remember . Comedies are hard . The entire mood of the audience can change with a snap of a finger . A lot of the plays heavily depend on an actor’s skill . I mean, there’s a reason why comedies don’t do all that well in teen compet.i.tions . ”
Miso’s voice fell heavily . A few of the members even moaned a little after hearing about the reason why comedies flopped . They must be thinking of the past .
“What the h.e.l.l’s up with those faces? Are you scared?”
“ . . . . . . ”
“I was the one at fault last time . You guys didn’t do anything wrong . You know, I was so mad that time that I couldn’t even sleep . How were you guys? Did you sleep well after that?”
Everyone shook their heads .
“That’s why we’re going to really show it to those judges this time . We’re going to show them how great we are . If you think about it a little differently, a comedy is a great opportunity to just crush everyone else . That’s exactly what’s going to happen this time . ”
Miso gave the two scripts over to the group . The person who grabbed hold of it was Yoonjung . The play she grabbed was Critical Ma.s.s . Joonghyuk stepped forward to grab The People of Dalseok-dong .
After scanning the script, the two of them exchanged it . The auditorium was filled with the noise of flipping paper . The two club leaders never looked more serious than this moment . They then handed off their scripts over to the rest of the club, who started reading the script as well .
Soon, the scripts came over to Maru . Maru felt the gaze of Miso on him, along with the gazes of the club members . He brought the script over to Miso .
“Looks like they made their decision . ”
“Aren’t you going to read it?”
“Is there really a need?”
“I think you’ll have to . ”
“What?”
Miso looked like she just fished something big out of the waters . Maru turned the page of the two scripts . He saw the t.i.tles, the synopsis that Miso wrote, and…
The characters .
“Fifteen, sixteen . . . ”
There were a total of twelve members in the club . Significantly less than the number of characters in the play .
“You can at least play the role of a pa.s.serby, can’t you?”
“So this is how you’re going to do this?”
“What, you can’t? This isn’t going to take much time . Come on, just a few lines?”
“You know I can’t invest that much time into the club . ”
“Doesn’t matter . You’ll get it quick . ”
Maru glanced behind him . A few of the students looked excited, a few annoyed, and a few disinterested .
“Can I join?”
The question was directed at the members .
“Of course! We’d be happy!”
Yoonjung was the first to answer . As a matter of fact, all of the second years seemed pretty excited about the prospect . Maru turned to the first years .
“Do what you want . I don’t care . ”
“Don’t care!”
Taejoon and Iseul seemed to be neutral .
“Well… I’m sure he’ll make a good decision . ”
“Hmph!”
Geunseok and Yurim were sending signals for him to not partic.i.p.ate . And…
“I’ll teach you acting, son!”
“Join us . ”
“Do it . ”
Dojin, Daemyung and Soyeon didn’t even hesitate . Maru turned back to look at Miso .
“I know you drew a line, but you can still partic.i.p.ate at least a little, can’t you?” Miso whispered with a wink .
She was being persistent, but not enough to be annoying . It was kind of as if she was asking him for a small favor . Maru was sure that even if he refused her here, she wouldn’t be too disappointed . She’d probably find a different way to make him join .
‘Toge . . . ther . ’
Maru had made up his mind to switch clubs after this year . It wasn’t like he was sick of acting, but he wanted to get a different experience altogether . Helping out Soojin was enough in terms of doing acting . He was actually thinking of joining the Chinese Language club, actually . The prospect of learning Chinese sounded pretty good to him .
‘I’m going to switch clubs anyway, so . . . ’
MIght as well spend the next half year with a little more effort for the club .
“Please treat me well, then . ”
“No way, I’ll flipping murder you if you do badly . I won’t hold you for long during practice, though . You’re going to be an extra anyway, hehe . ”
Miso grinned toothily, seeming happy with the fact that she managed to snag him into partic.i.p.ating . Maru sighed inwardly in relief . Refusing the woman so much did seem to have a bit of an impact on him . Accepting her request just this once made him feel a whole lot better .
“Alright! The whole club’s going to be in on this play! Let’s choose which one we want to do then, shall we? Raise your hand if you like the play I call out . We’re going to go democratic here . Starting off, Critical Ma.s.s!”
Miso’s voice seemed to have a little more vibrancy than usual, for some reason .
* * *
Maru took out his script the first thing he came back home . It was The People of Dalseok-dong . Funnily enough, everyone in the club decided to go with this one, including him .
‘Maybe Miso had a pretty good grasp on what the other kids liked already . ’
Leaders needed to know the people they lead . And according to Miso herself, she had an eye for people . As proof, twelve students in the club all chose one play . This couldn’t just be coincidence .
“A teen, huh . ”
The character had no name and was never called out by anyone else either . He was just… a teenager . That was the character Maru was in charge of . He had very few lines, too . Just three . But he would appear in up to five scenes . He was supposed to be one of those pa.s.sersby who would look at a situation and shout ‘Eh?!’ and disappear .
Basically, a part of the environment . A character that wouldn’t take anything away from the play even if he was removed completely . At least, that’s how Maru saw the character .
* * *
“Yes!”
Miso jumped up with a fist in the sky . Taesik had to ask the woman why she was so happy . Her happiness almost seemed infectious, seeing by the smile on the man’s face .
“He took the bait so well . ”
“Bait?”
“Oh, I’m talking about Maru . He has no idea what kind of a character he’s gotten in charge of . Oh boy oh boy, I’m so excited . ”
“Is it really that exciting?”
“Of course! I bet he thinks his role is completely useless . Alright, step one of my plan is done, and as long as I do this well, then… Hehehe . ”
Taesik couldn’t help but swallow nervously . Miso was generally a good person, but she did have her devilish moments . When her mind was made up, then she really looked like a determined general .
“By the way, oppa . ”
“Y-Yes?”
Taesik stepped back, intimidated by the woman’s energy .
“Can’t you at least try to be more casual?”
“Ah, yes . Of course . ”
“Ugh!”
Taesik hugged Miso, and looked at the bartender with an awkward smile .
“Good times,” the old bartender commented with a hearty laugh .