Chapter 7

<“What’s up?” Dojin asked.

“It’s nothing.” Maru said, as he put a hand over his chin.Dojin must’ve thought of something just then, amongst the lines of ‘what’s up with this guy?’ But no word bubble appeared.“Hey, Dojin.”“Yeah?”“Did you think of anything when I was looking at you?”The boy looked confused by the question, but he shook his head in denial.“Of course not. What’s there to think about?”Ah. Now Maru understood. Friends wouldn’t think something like ‘what’s wrong with this kid’ between each other. No, to begin with, most people don’t usually think deeply when going about their lives. Maru looked down at his hand. He was playing around with a red pen in it. Of course, he wasn’t actively thinking ‘let’s play with this pen’ as he did it. He just did it out of habit.“Hey, Dojin.” he asked.“What up?”“Stand up a bit.”“The hell are you trying to do?” Dojin said, standing up anyway.“What did you think just now?”“Think of what now? I just stood up.”“Right?”“Flipping heck, is this because of the MP3?”Maru turned to look at Dojin right there. But there was no word bubble still. Was there a different condition as well?[Ah, this guy’s probably in trouble too, huh. Ugh, I should tell my mom about this.]The word bubble came just then, allowing Maru to draw a single conclusion. The word bubbles only appeared when a person thought of something specific. “No need to tell your mom. I’m fine,” Maru responded.“No, but if you keep looking at me like th… W-wait wait wait, what? How did...”“How do you think? Just a smart guess, man.”“...Did I look too obvious?”“Don’t worry about it. Can I have a piece of candy, by the way? And just forget about the MP3. I can’t believe you’re still worried about it.”“My dad’s always told me that if I care about a person, I have to treat them with utmost respect. You’re a friend, so you deserve it.” said Dojin as he threw him a piece of candy.Maru received it with a smile on his face. Dojin sounded like he grew up under a wonderful father. He agreed with the sentiment completely. The more you value a person, the more you should respect them. “What a sentence,” he said.“Agreed. Ah, anyway, are we going to the acting club or not?”“We are.”Maru realized that he really was treating his new life differently. In the past, he might have felt an interest in the acting club, but just wouldn’t have gone. He would just have said something along the lines of ‘looks fun, but too hard’ and turned away. But Maru knew now… that this was the only chance he had in life where he was free to do anything. He couldn’t live freely in college because by then, he had to start worrying about entering the real world. In that case… shouldn’t he do everything he could to try to live as fun a life as he could now?A small smile crept up on Maru’s face. He had made a decision. He threw the club list away. He didn’t need it anymore.“Ah, crap. Homeroom time.”The bell rang alongside someone’s complaint. Maru drove off all his sleep with that as the signal. He really couldn’t afford to sleep in this one. Getting hit by a cue stick was a big no no for him.

* * *The classes ended, and all the students went off to their cleaning areas. Those who weren’t assigned to areas ran off to the front entrance. Yoonjung ran for the club room instead. She wondered to herself how many people would come to visit.She hoped to see a few. She went up to the clubroom at the fourth floor of the school. The lights were still off. Yoonjung squeezed through the door to get inside.“I should clean this all up, first.” she found herself saying.The club room was quite large. But despite that, all the props and costumes inside made it look small. There were four hangars full of costumes, even.“I guess… Cleaning all of it’s a bit of a stretch.”When would she even finish? Yoonjung grew sick of cleaning the place up before she even started. She didn’t notice because she got used to the place, but… If the newcomers were to see this…[How dirty. I’m not going to join.][So complicated. I don’t think I’ll join.][What the hell? Smells. I won’t join.]With multiple voices of imaginary club members streaming in her head, she immediately pulled up her sleeves.She can do this!The club room reverberated with loud noises.