Chapter 167

* * *“What’s this?”“Advertising slogan.”Maru handed Geunseok a piece of paper, there were lines on it that Daemyung thought up. Geunseok seemed to think it was pretty childish, but the boy was reading through all of it regardless.“At least three people. More is better, of course.”“We’ll get three easily. All girls too.”Geunseok was smiling confidently, the boy was quite a relief to have around. Personality aside, he was very handsome.“I’ll do comedy with Daemyung. You should put weight behind our words.”Geunseok nodded, Maru turned to Daemyung with a grin. The boy wrote the script, knowing full well what Geunseok’s personality was like. “Alright, let’s go.”Last year, they were the ones lulled into the club. This year, they were the ones left to advertise the club. They needed to drag in as many first years as possible, their first target was mechanical engineering. They opened the class door after a small knock, the teacher recognized them and motioned them in. Maru started his spiel as soon as he saw the teacher sitting down with arms crossed.“Hello everyone, we’re the Blue Sky acting club of Woosung High.”Might as well start off strong.

* * *Maru asked a question as he closed the door behind him.“Next?”“Design.”“Hah.”Daemyung took a sip of water nervously, the boy still hadn’t built up any resistance towards girls. On the other hand, Geunseok stepped in front of the class with a confident look. They’ve done rounds on six classes so far. Mech, Electrical, Computer engineering. Those classes were all filled with boys, so the reactions they received were very uninteresting as well. When one of the students asked them, ‘are there any pretty seniors?’ all Maru could say was, ‘we’re about to get some pretty underclassmen’. As expected from an engineering school, they needed girls. Only now was Maru able to realize why Yoonjung and Danmi were the ones advertising way back then.‘One girl is better than a hundred boys.’That was the truth, at least to a normal highschool boy.“Let’s crossdress.”“W-what?”“I’m joking.”“Don’t speak so seriously, I almost fell for it.”Maru pat Daemyung on the back before knocking on the next class door. Geunseok would need to do well here, especially considering his appearance and his conversational skills. Given that not many students even cared for acting nowadays, these were the only two things they could rely on.“Come inside.”They opened the door at the teacher’s words, the first years all awkwardly looked at the three of them.‘So this year too, the boys are going to be slaves in the design class, huh.’The ratio of girls to boys was eight to two. In cases like these, the boys were submissive under the girls. If the boys don’t understand or learn the politics between girls, they can often get chewed up to death before even knowing it. Only a select few boys here would be able to live out a happy high school life surrounded by girls. The rest? As mentioned before, slaves.Maru gave Geunseok a glance. Already, most of the girls were looking at the boy.“Hello, underclassmen.”Geunseok stepped forward with a greeting, Maru and Daemyung stuck very closely behind him. Please don’t make a mistake, please don’t make a mistake… Daemyung’s plan here was very simple: a handsome boy, and the dumb and dumber. As Geunseok talked in front of them, they danced rhythmically with a silly face. They got good reactions, thankfully. The girls were smiling.“Don’t worry about the guys behind me. They’re kind of like a signboard of the club.”Geunseok went on according to Daemyung’s script. He was clean. This too, in the end, was acting. He commanded attention with his calm voice. Noticing that most of the class’s focus was on them now, Maru gave Daemyung a glance. Their silly faces were only there to loosen up the mood, they clearly didn’t need it anymore.The two of them went back to looking serious. Geunseok started to explain about the specifics regarding the acting club. Some of the students frowned hearing that the club would be difficult, it was understandable. No one wanted to put time and effort into something difficult.“But you can’t exchange the joy you feel on stage when you get applauded with anything else. You know the word ‘catharsis’, don’t you? The cathartic feeling you get then is unforgettable. You can’t exchange it with anything. The acting club is definitely difficult. But I can at least guarantee this. The one year you spend in our club will completely overshadow everything else about high school.”Geunseok took a step back to breathe. As Maru expected, Geunseok was done here. The nervous air in the class was still there. Maru looked at Daemyung, the boy looked satisfied.“...Point is, you definitely won’t lose out on anything as long as you’re serious about acting. The acting club’s clubroom is located on the fourth floor, right to the left of the central staircase. You can register until Saturday, so please drop by!”It was very clean. As expected, Geunseok could be trusted with stuff like this. Daemyung started handing out papers about the club. “Please take a look and come by if you’re interested. You don’t need to be pretty to be a good actor. You’ll be fine as long as you’re interested. I mean, just look at me!”Daemyung smiled before saying his last line.“Let’s make a play together.”