Chapter 143

Chapter 143

The stage was a lot of fun for sure, Maru felt a lot better just saying his lines . Whenever a new reaction from the audience hit him, it felt like more and more of his senses were being liberated .

“It looks like I’ll have to go back inside . ”

He gave a slight bow before coming back off stage, he nodded at the club members before grabbing a water bottle on the floor . He was wearing very light clothes, but he was still very sweaty inside .

“Not much left . ”

Miso told them to focus until the end, the play was quickly reaching its climax . Since the characters never really went through a big conflict, the climax wasn’t particularly tense . It was just a traditional comedy . The play would be considered a success if the audience was smiling until the end . Maru could hear Geunseok speaking on stage . Despite playing a character with no real traits, Geunseok could still attract attention to him . The boy’s voice was trying its utmost in order to not get buried by the other kids around him .

The quality of the play was going up, purely thanks to Geunseok’s work .

* * *

“They’re good . ”

“Yeah . ”

“Didn’t Woosung High fail the prelims last summer?”

“Yeah, that’s what I heard . ”

She was whispering quietly with Yoojin while looking at the boy in front of her . The boy on stage was tall and had very well-defined features . The boy’s charming voice and energy were almost incredible . That wasn’t all . His acting was so natural that the character he was playing almost felt real .

“I wonder why they failed?”

“My senior watched the play, and… Apparently they made a mistake?”

“Mistake?”

“Yeah, apparently it was from the tall kid, so… Probably him?”

“Maru’s tall too, though . ”

“Maru didn’t participate in the summer competition . ”

“Really? So he only started practicing in Fall?”

“Pretty much . ”

“That’s surprising . Really surprising . ”

Yoojin rested her chin on her hand . It really was surprising . Looking back, Maru told her that he worked a part-time job over the summer . Meaning, he didn’t practice at all . He only started practicing in the Fall, so… four months . In any case, the people on the stage left and the stage turned blue again .

“Maru’s coming,” Yoojin noted .

Maru stumbled out from behind the curtain . He carefully walked to the center before looking around, as if he was about to tell them a secret . His movements were well-rehearsed and flowed well .

“The tall kid is better at acting for sure, but my attention is drawn more to Maru . Is it the lights?”

“Don’t know . ”

She was curious about that as well . She came to see Maru as a fan of plays, not as his lover . Maru was standing in front of her, speaking calmly and easily on stage . His character was unique for sure . It only made sense that he would attract attention, but was that really all there was to it? His character was unique, but not to that extent . There were plenty of other characters in the play who looked nice as well . It wasn’t like Maru was significantly better at acting than everyone else, either .

So what made him so much more charming? She thought it was simply because she liked him, but Yoojin felt the same way as her . There had to be a different reason .

‘Tone? Expression? Or synergy with his character?’

What was it? She felt herself getting nervous by the second, she didn’t want to lose to Maru in terms of acting . She was Maru’s girlfriend, but she also didn’t want to lose . Especially not as an actor from Myunghwa high .

“I can’t read the judges’ minds, but they’re going to do pretty well, I’m sure of it . ”

Yoojin sounded confident and she had to agree . She’s followed her dad to watch many plays in the past and she had felt what she’s feeling now whenever she looked at good actors . She put a hand over her chest, she could feel it beating .

‘He’s good . I’m not going to lose, though . ’

It suddenly occurred to her that she’s never thought this while she practiced with Maru .

“Yoojin, what was it like practicing with Maru? Was he like this?”

“Mm… Not at all . He’s completely different . Maru’s very boring when he practices . Not in a bad way . He’s really good and well-balanced . Very good to practice with . But it feels like he’s always missing something . ”

“What about now?”

“You can see for yourself, he’s very different . Maru on the stage looks… kind of dangerous . It feels like he’s walking on a tightrope . You get dragged into focusing on him, because it almost feels like he’s going to make a mistake . More than anything, you can see him having a huge amount of fun . You smile before you even realize it . ”

That was it . She nodded in agreement . Maru had life on the stage, unlike during practice . It almost felt like he was going to charge into the audience right now . Looking at that just made her start focusing on him . His acting was exciting, to say the least .

“Woosung high . I’ll have to tell my seniors about it . ”

“Me too . ”

She balled up her hands into a fist . What would Maru look like when they got on the stage together? She looked forward to it . She wanted to see the actor that was Maru as soon as she could .

‘What the, he’s pretty cool . ’

She turned to look at Yoojin for a second .

“What is it?”

“No, it’s nothing . ”

“Maru’s cool, right?”

Yoojin smiled oddly . That surprised her . She almost denied Yoojin adamantly . No, she almost told Yoojin to stop looking at Maru so positively . She felt her cheeks redden, so she quickly turned away . She was still looking at the stage, though . She didn’t want to miss it .

“You’re really adorable, did you know that?”

Yoojin pinched her cheeks with a grin . She put on a small frown on her face . Right then .

“By the way . ”

“Mm?”

“I’m not the type that gives up even after seeing a goalkeeper . ”

Yoojin looked back at the stage after saying that . She widened her eyes in surprise . The girl said something pretty cryptic . She could only tell herself that Yoojin was talking about something else, but she was staring very intensely at the stage right now .

“He’s mine . ”

She realized what she said only after it got out of her mouth . Yoojin put a hand over her mouth with a grin . That’s when she realized, she’s just been played for .

“You . . . ”

“Shh . The play’s still going on . ”

“ . . . I’ll see you after the play ends . ”

“Any time . I wasn’t lying about that last part though . ”

The girl looked confident, she didn’t look away . They glared at each other for a second before looking away .

“Come on, what about loaning him out?”

“No . ”

“So you guys ARE going out then, aren’t you?”

“That’s . . . ”

“You need to get lessons on dating . You’re totally a newbie in that area, aren’t you? I couldn’t help but tease you . ”

Yoojin grabbed her face before snapping it back towards the stage .

“Your boyfriend’s about to leave the stage . ”

She wanted to say something, but she lost the motivation after seeing that grin on Yoojin’s face . She should just focus on watching the play .

* * *

"Looks like we got a winner here . ”

“Right?”

“Wow . A comedy . And it doesn’t suck, either . It’s been a while since I’ve seen that . ”

The judges nodded in unison . The prelims would continue until the next week, but they would be hard-pressed to find any teams better than Woosung High .

“So it’s Myunghwa High and Woosung High, then?”

“Myunghwa High didn’t even go yet, though . ”

“The kids from that school are very good, remember? I went there last time since I had business at the school, and wow… Their practice room is better than most theaters in Hyehwa station, they even have their own dressing room . The school’s going all out with them . ”

“Makes sense . They’re famous for their acting club, after all . ”

“The prelims should be nothing for them . ”

Everyone nodded yet again .

“But disregarding that for a second, Woosung High really prepared a lot for this . ”

“Yeah . I heard one of their graduates is their instructor?”

“Miss Yang Miso . ”

“Ahh, I know her . She’s very popular at such a young age . She used to be a powerhouse in the Blue Sky theater . So she decided to become an instructor, huh?”

“She probably had a change of mind . It does feel nice seeing a school that used to be famous start to climb back up like this . ”

“Haha, don’t try to score them too well though because of it . ”

The judges finished their conversation with a smile . At the same time, the play ended . The young club members started to come out one by one for a curtain call .

“That one was really good,” one of the judges said, pointing at a tall boy in the group .

Everyone else nodded in agreement .

“And him… we’ll have to watch him, but he does have great potential . It’ll be fun to watch him . ”

The odd character that started talking to the audience out of nowhere . It was a character that could’ve gotten completely ruined, but the boy handled it very well . The judges were able to have a nice time watching the play thanks to it .

“Really? I don’t know . It just felt like I was watching a kid who was unable to control himself . ”

“It does kind of feel like that too . He’s like a diamond in the rough? He’s good to watch, though, since the tall boy supports the rest of the play so well . ”

“That’s true . ”

By then, the club members finished their curtain call . The judges put down their pens and clapped with the rest of the audience .

* * *

"Good job . ”

Miso comforted the club members who returned to the dressing room . She was very satisfied . The club did very well . The judges probably had nothing bad to say about them .

“Phew, it’s over . ”

“No mistakes . Hah . . . ”

The kids finally started relaxing a bit .

“Good work . The next team will come in soon, though, so let’s get ready to leave . ”

Miso wanted more time to talk, but the situation wasn’t so good . They couldn’t take up the space for too long, given the nature of the event . In the end, they had to get out carrying props without even being able to erase their makeup .

“We have to use these props again, so careful!”

It only felt like their work was truly over when they carried everything outside .

“We did well, right?”

“Yeah, we were awesome . ”

Miso called the club members closer .

“We’ll have to wait for the results, but I don’t think we’ll fail at all . We can worry about that when we actually get into the nationals . So let’s go straight back to practice!”

The kids all nodded at the word . They probably felt it at the stage themselves, the power of practice .

“They’ll announce the results next week . Three days later, we’ll go into regionals . Ten days later would be the finals . We don’t have a lot of time . ”

Miso wanted to let them go more than anything else just for today, but she didn’t show it . It wasn’t over just yet .

“Let’s review our work when we go back to school . Think of what you did well and what you did wrong on our way back . ”

“Yes!”

“I’ll say it again, but you guys did tremendously well today . This is only the start though, so stay nervous . ”

“Yes!!”

“Good, let’s get going . From here on out, it will be a race against time . ”

Miso looked back at the city hall, she could feel the kids staring at it with her from behind . Finally, they managed to move forward by one step .

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