Chapter 162

* * *“Maru?”“Yes. What do you think?”Geunseok closed his mouth. Maru? A fire?‘Well, it’d be good to hear, honestly.’He really didn’t like Maru, the boy was annoying from start to finish. It’d be great if someone like that was the perpetrator, but he had to shake his head in disagreement here.“He’s a bit annoying, but I don’t think he did it.”“Really?”“Yes.”“Alright. Anyone else you’d be suspicious of?”“I don’t really know. But I hope you know that I didn’t do this. You should know that I’m working very hard for the club.”Miso nodded, gesturing for him to get up.“Yurim’s the last one, right?”“Yes.”“Bring her over.”Geunseok came back to the auditorium, none of the club members were talking. Then again, they were all pretty shocked by Miso. There was no reason for any casual conversation to be taking place. He called out to Yurim, the girl flinched like someone who just got woken up.“Why are you so surprised? You’re next. Go.”“...Okay.”Yurim barely managed to stand up, she shook off Soyeon when the girl tried to help her. Did they fight? Yurim walked out of the auditorium with a dark look.

* * *Yurim felt even more nervous than the first time she got on stage. What was instructor Miso planning inside? No one told her what had happened. But, given their expressions, it couldn’t have been anything good. She opened the door, instructor Miso was sitting down with her arms crossed. There was a chair in front of the instructor, so Yurim took a seat before anything else. “I’ll make this quick. Just listen to my opinion and tell me what you think.”“Yes.”“I’m suspicious of Maru.”The hair on her arms stood up. What did Miso mean by that? She looked at the instructor with trembling eyes. Why was the instructor suspicious of him? This was a chance.She was sick of feeling so nervous, she wanted to be done with this. It felt like she would go insane if this dragged on for any longer. Miso was suspicious of Maru, agreeing with that outright would make her look suspicious. Maybe she could imply her agreement a little bit instead?There was no proof that she did it anyway. Right. If she says it might be Maru here… the nervousness inside her disappeared. This was a chance. A chance granted to her by the heavens. “Yurim?”“Y-yes?”“What do you think?”“Um… I...”She felt conflicted, but her feelings quickly got swept over by the desire to feel comfortable again.“Maru’s suspicious for sure. I’m not saying he did it of course. It’s just… anyway, there wasn’t a fire until we came down, but the fire appeared when he went up.”“Right? I thought so too.”Miso immediately put a small smile on her face, the woman was clearly a bit happy to hear this. Maybe this would go over more easily than Yurim first thought? “Do you think the same way as me, instructor?”“Mm, yes. Pretty much.”“Maru hated acting at first. He just joined out of the blue. Plus, remember when he said those mean things to all of us? He might actually be a bully inside.”Yurim closed her mouth in surprise. Maybe she went a bit too far here? Thankfully, instructor Miso was still smiling kindly. “I heard your opinion well. You can go now. Do keep this to yourself though.”“Of course.”That’s good, instructor Miso was suspicious of Maru. Yurim really might’ve let out a smile if she wasn’t still in front of the woman. Instructor Miso stepped back into the auditorium after a brief wait. “Good work, guys. You can all go home now. See you in two days.”Everyone got up with dissatisfied expressions. They all left the auditorium one by one with their bags. Yurim approached Geunseok, but the boy left telling her that he was busy.‘Can’t be helped.’If she pushed the boy further, he’d hate her. She ignored Soyeon calling out to her and walked to the bus station. She really wanted to sleep, it felt like she could finally get some good sleep for the first time in a while. Right then, she got a call.“Instructor?”- Yurim, where are you?“I’m at the bus station.”- Can you wait? I want you to go somewhere with me.“What?”Instructor Miso’s car rolled right up to her.“Get on.”Yurim got on and the car took off immediately.