Chapter 84

* * *“This is...”“A complete mess.”Miso didn’t miss the two men next to her talking. A mess. She would’ve tackled them any other time, but right now, she had to agree. ‘Ugh, this is bad.’Indeed, the stage was a complete mess. Everyone was acting pretty well. No one was making any mistakes, and the rhythm of the play was very well maintained. Overall, the play was being performed very well. Enough to make Miso proud. But she couldn’t smile at all.“There’s a gap.”“They should get rid of it.”Geunsoo and Ganghwan were talking, Miso shook her head annoyedly.‘This isn’t good at all.’There was one note in the song that stood out from all others. It was hard to notice, but it was easy to feel that there was something wrong when you listened to it.‘Han Maru.’Miso looked at the stage with a sigh. That one note that stuck out… That was the issue.

* * *“We don’t have to worry?”She put down her lipstick to look at the president. The president nodded vigorously.“Are they that bad?”“No, they’re good.”“Eh? So why...”“Mm, well...”The president thought for a bit before making four students of similar height stand in a line.“How is it?”“What?”Some of the club members couldn’t understand the question.“How are they, when you line them up like this?”“I mean… It looks nice since they’re all the same height.”This time, the president stood in the line. The tall president looked like the odd one out, now.“What about now?”This time, all of the club members answered.“You don’t fit in there.”“That’s exactly it.”“What?”“I don’t know how to put it in words, but that’s how it feels. Woosung high’s very obviously good at acting. Even I can see that. Everyone in that club feels well-practiced. But… When they’re together, they feel odd. Nothing fits.”“They can’t cooperate?”“Not exactly. You’ll be able to get it when you see it. They’re good, but they’re also bad. I don’t know how else to put it.”Good, but also bad. She tilted her head to the side in confusion. What in the world did that mean?

* * *Curtain call. Soyeon grabbed Taejoon’s hand and stepped forward. Holding hands with him made her feel a little nervous, but she realized there was no reason to be when she was walking out on stage. Applause. Soyeon blanked out when she was greeted with applause. This was her third time experiencing it, but she still wasn’t used to it. It made her think, so this is why people do acting.“Good work. Really,” Taejoon whispered to her.Soyeon could feel her cheeks redden, so she just kept looking forward. The club members stepped forward one by one, and lastly, Geunseok bowed to the audience. This was the first curtain call. After all of the club left the stage, Maru ran into the stage hurriedly. “Hey, guys! What about me?!”Maru ran into the stage shouting. He did a quick kowtow to the audience before running straight back out, that was the end of the curtain call. Soyeon could hear the audience laughing outside. Did they have fun? Did they laugh a lot? She couldn’t see what the audience was like since she was so busy acting. Just saying her lines were hard enough.‘I should congratulate everyone.’But as soon as Soyeon turned around, she noticed everyone had very uncomfortable expressions on their faces.“Phew.”Everyone was sighing, as a matter of fact. Soyeon turned to look at Daemyung.“What the, what happened?”“...We didn’t get good reactions.”“Ah.”Only then did she remember what the audience was like during the play. She only heard one or two people laugh silently. There wasn’t the expected amount of laughter during any of the comedic highlights. Did they fail? How did they not make anyone laugh in a comedy?“Well, at least Maru made them laugh.”“They also laughed at some of the other scenes,” the other members said.Everyone knew this wasn’t enough to satisfy them, though, so they all just went back to sighing.