Chapter 133

Chapter 133
Chapter 133
Everyone has expectations . When the other party fails to meet those expectations, a person would not only feel disappointment, but also a little feeling of betrayal as well .
“It looks like things became like this because of me . I’m sorry . ”
“No, it’s not that at all . ”
Yoonjung waved her hands with a small smile .
“We did end up getting lazy . You weren’t the issue or anything here . ”
Joonghyuk agreed . He was still staring at the doors Miso left through .
“Let’s go back for now . It’s too late . Ah, right . Which of you are going by bus, again? Daemyung, Dojin, Soyeon and Geunseok?”
Yoonjung spoke with a worried voice . It was already past midnight . At this rate, everyone would have to walk home .
“We can walk back home . It’s just 40 minutes . ”
“Will you be okay?”
“Daemyung needs to lose weight anyway . ”
Dojin wrapped his arm around Daemyung with a giant grin . Daemyung nodded with a pretty calm expression .
“It’s going to be cold, though . ”
“We can run, then . ”
Yoonjung was probably worried about the mid-December weather . The second years got together and spoke for a second . Moments later, Yoonjung called everyone over to her .
“Here . ”
Yoonjung handed them four ten thousand won bills .
“Go back by taxi . Yurim and Geunseok can ride in one taxi . Daemyung and Dojin can ride in the other . ”
“We’re fine . ”
“It’s cold . You’re going to catch a cold . You really need to take care of yourselves . Plus, you guys sweated way too much . Trust me, with clothes like those right now, you’re going to freeze . ”
Danmi took off her scarf to wrap it around Yurim . The girl tried to refuse the scarf at first, but eventually gave up resisting . Soyeon, Taejoon, and Iseul thankfully lived within walking distance to their homes . They usually got back home by bus, but they could easily walk it .
“Sorry . It’s all our fault . ”
Yoonjung looked at the floor dejectedly . The weight of being president was probably bearing down on her .
“We’ll focus again tomorrow, so that instructor Miso won’t be disappointed . She doesn’t hold grudges, so we’ll be seeing each other with smiles on our faces tomorrow . Promise . ”
Yoonjung often made herself seem a little childish, but she looked very much like a president right now . Maru listened to the girl as he calculated taxi fees inside his head . He was thinking of giving the kids a little more outside if they were a little short, but ten thousand per person should easily cover it .
“You guys go back first . We’ll stay back to clean things up . ”
“We’ll help . ”
“It’s fine, your parents must be worried . You should really go . ”
Yoonjung dragged them out of the auditorium one by one . She waved at the club members with a smile before slowly closing the door on them .
“I feel sorry for them . ”
“Yeah . ”
It looked like everyone felt a lot from this experience, even Maru felt a little heavy .
[Do you guys think this is a joke?]
Perhaps Miso, their instructor, was taking the play far more seriously than the actors themselves . Looking back, the woman liked to use the word ‘definitely’ a lot . As light as the word seemed, it carried a lot of weight behind it . After all, the word indicated that something would get done no matter what .
The eight members walked down with a deep sigh . When the security guard found them and asked why they were leaving so late, they told the guard that there were still people upstairs .
“Still? It’s almost dawn now . ”
The guard looked up at the stairs with wide eyes before going back to the security office .
“Yeah, it’s definitely late . ”
“Holy moly, I just checked the phone and I got so many calls from my mom . I’m dead . . . ”
Dojin paled as he stared at his phone . The others seemed to be in a similar situation, judging from their expressions . None of them had the time to check their phones since they were so busy with practice . Even if they had the time, they probably wouldn’t have been able to check it, given how angry Miso was .
“Call them first . They must be worried . ”
“Of course . ”
Everyone started calling their parents with their phones . In the meantime, Maru checked his phone as well . There was a single message .
[You’re late . Be quiet when you come inside . ]
The end .
Maru’s mom had a very laissez-faire approach to raising her children . Honestly, Maru would appreciate it more if his mom would occasionally send him a text out of worry . He messaged her back, saying he was going back now . He knew that his mom was worrying about him despite writing a message like this . Parents tended to go to sleep nervously, despite knowing their children were safe . Maru knew that feeling well . Children just felt so fragile by themselves, no matter how old they were .
Once he looked up, he noticed that everyone had a frown on their faces, likely from the scoldings they received from their parents . What a day . First Miso managed to land several hits on them during training, then their parents basically scored a home run .
“I feel like my allowance is going to get a cut . . . ”
“Congrats . You’ve jinxed yourself . ”
“God damn it . ”
They did seem to relax a little though at the prospect of going back home . They were stiffening up again at the prospect of seeing Miso tomorrow, but it’d be alright . Like Yoonjung said, Miso wasn’t the type who held grudges . As they stepped outside the building, they were greeted with four taxis waiting for them at the entrance .
“What the hell were you doing in there?! You guys don’t want to go back home?!”
Miso was shouting at them from next to her car . Maru let out a small laugh when he saw her . The other kids were still looking back and forth between the taxis and Miso with confused expressions . Maru stepped down first as the other kids stood dumbly from atop the stairs .
“You didn’t leave yet?”
“I knew the last bus left already, so of course not . ”
“You know you’re breaking that terrifying image you built all day by doing this, right?”
“I know you guys aren’t idiots . I trust that you’d understand my intentions after a small scolding . Am I wrong?”
Maru could only shake his head .
“Where are the second years, by the way?”
“They’re cleaning up upstairs . ”
“Hah, so they’re seniors, is that it?”
“They’re very good seniors, even gave us money to go back home . ”
“Good lord . Look at those little things pretending to be adults . ”
That being said, Miso was looking up at the fifth floor with a tiny smile .
“First years . ”
“Y-yes!”
“Go back home . Just tell your parents that your instructor went way off the rails today and didn’t let you go . If there’s a problem, just call me . Got it?”
“ . . . Yes . ”
“The drivers are waiting . Get moving . ”
Miso sent the seven kids off on their way . Three of the taxis left . Miso told the last driver to wait a second before stepping into the school . A little later, she stepped out dragging Yoonjung and Danmi by their arms, Joonghyuk and Minsung were following closely behind them . Miso stuffed the four of them into a taxi before asking the driver to leave .
“So you know where everyone lives . ”
It looked like Miso had an idea of in which direction everyone lived .
“I’m your instructor, so why wouldn’t I? By the way, you commute by bike, right?”
“Yes . ”
Right then, a strong wind blew . The type that really showed that it was winter . It felt like Maru’s skin would peel off from the harsh wind .
“How long does it take?”
“Not that long . ”
“I don’t believe you . Give me a number . ”
“ . . . 40 minutes?”
“Are you crazy?! In this weather?”
Miso shouted before grabbing Maru’s arm . Maru just stared at his bike from afar .
“Coming to school’s going to be annoying tomorrow without that, though . ”
“So, you’re going to ride it?”
“I’m not going to die in this weather . I can do it . ”
Unfortunately, that was exactly when a bit of snot dribbled down his nose . Miso narrowed her eyes at him .
“Get on . ”
“ . . . . . . . ”
“Want me to throw you in?”
“I get it, I’ll get in . ”
Goodbye, my horse .
Maru gave his bike one last look before getting in the car . The heat from the car made him shiver a little when he stepped inside .
“Seriously, I can’t believe you thought about biking in this weather . ”
“I heard people used to walk for several tens of kilometers for school during winter though . ”
“We don’t live in those times anymore . Just put on your seatbelt already . ”
Maru put on his seatbelt with a smile . The car exited the school and the two of them stopped talking for a second . Maru looked out the window for a bit before opening his mouth .
“Is there a different reason other than the fact that we were lazy?”
The dolls on the back mirror were shaking side by side . Miso glanced at Maru before opening her mouth .
“The part where I got angry?”
“Yeah . ”
“Why do you think that?”
“Just a feeling . You scold us a lot, but you never put any personal feelings into it . You’re a professional, after all . But today was different . You seemed genuinely angry . ”
“Did the other kids think the same?”
“No, it was just me . ”
“ . . . . . . . ”
Miso didn’t say anything for a while, an awkward silence flowed between them . Maru seemed to be right on the mark here . What else made Miso mad today? No matter what he thought, there weren’t many things that could’ve made her mad . That meant she was mad because of something else . But she was a pro . She wouldn’t take out her anger on the students .
That meant one thing . There was something bothering her immensely and it was about the acting club . What was it?
“Taesik, no, your teacher told me that the club might have to vacate the auditorium . ”
“The auditorium?”
“The fifth floor auditorium always belonged to the acting club . After all, the acting club were the only people who could use it during practice . No one cared . We even got awards from local competitions and everything . We even got a lot of famous actors, too . But the club hasn’t gotten anything done recently . You know that, right?”
Maru nodded . They lost during last year’s winter nationals . That wasn’t the club’s problem . They couldn’t participate because of the fire . The club the year before that participated, but they lost as well . Geunsoo’s club was the golden age of the acting club, the club’s only been in decline since then .
“Back then, the school funded everything for the club . But as you know, the teacher is the one funding the club now . Back in my day, students used to come to our school just to come to our acting club . That fact alone gave the lot of us pride . After all, there were students who came to our school just because of us . We worked very hard, and even got first place in the nationals in our third year as well . ”
Miso frowned before continuing .
“Your teacher told me that we might have to give the auditorium to the baseball team . ”
“The baseball team?”
The Woosung baseball team managed to win during their high school competition this year . The baseball club finally managed to bring in results for the school . Thanks to them, the entire school even went to cheer for the club instead of taking classes .
“It looks like the chairman’s getting greedy . He wants to get rid of the auditorium to build a fitness center for the baseball team and wants to convert the gym building into a makeshift auditorium . ”
A good baseball team could be a massive selling point to any high school . That’s probably why the chairman was thinking about investing a lot into this . Instead of funding the acting club that almost started a fire and continued failing in the prelims, it would be better to fund the baseball club . Even Maru thought this was a sensible decision .
“This is a matter of pride . Plus, that place has been ours for years . ”
“But it’s about to get ripped away from us . ” “What the, giving up already?”
“This is a matter of money . Students can’t do anything about this . We might as well be thinking about something else since this is pointless . ”
“Ugh, this is why I didn’t want to talk to you about this . At least the other kids would tell me to cheer up or something . ”
“There’s a difference between something you can do and something you can’t do . ”
“ . . . I won’t watch you guys get kicked out of there for the death of me . My pride as a Blue Sky member is at stake here . ”
“So that’s why you were so angry . ”
“It’s complicated . Watching you guys get lazy when our home was about to get stolen… that did make me really mad . We tried so hard to get that place…”
“I’m sorry . ”
There was nothing else Maru could say . In truth, it was possible to just tell her she was overreacting and that the club could always find somewhere else to practice . The world would be a very boring place if everyone was logical like that though . It’s because people like Miso existed, who cared about memories, that life could be interesting for everyone .
“Do you think we’d have a chance if we win the nationals?”
“I don’t know . If the chairman already made his decision, we’d get kicked out no matter what . We can always practice in a classroom or something, but… I’d feel horrible about it . ”
Miso gripped her handle with a pout . Maru could tell from her actions just how much she cared about the club .
‘Then again, her theater in Hyehwa station has the same name too . ’
The name definitely had a lot of meanings to her . After all, it was what really kicked off her current life to begin with .
“So we’ll have to get something even bigger . ”
“Big enough to tempt the chairman . ”
“I see . ”
“Why?”
“No, I was just thinking about it . ”
“Hah, I see . Anyway, you guys have to practice like hell from now . Forget passing the prelims . You need to sweep in all of the awards at the nationals . Got it?”
“We’ll try . ”
“Trying isn't enough! Damn it!”
Maru smiled as he turned to look forward again .