“Damn it, what are you trying to do, stopping all of a sudden like that?You almost made me run into you. I’m talking about Sanghwi University.”
I turned around. Had I spun around too suddenly? If I’d been just a little closer, I would’ve almost run into him.
“Hey. I’m screwed at school too, you know.”
He looked down at me with an expression that said he didn’t know what I was talking about.
“Huh? What? What’s screwed up?”
I lifted my head to look up at his face and repeated myself carefully.
“We’re both screwed when it comes to school life. Are your ears broken?”
Only then did Yu Hamin seem to understand, and he brushed his hair back as he said,
“Ah… I get what you mean, but…”
I didn’t even listen to what he said. No, I didn’t need to.
“So, whatever we do, don’t contact each other, don’t act like we know each other, and if we see each other, just flinch and ignore it even if it feels like we’re gonna die, okay?”
And without waiting for his answer, I walked off by myself. I couldn’t even imagine going through the school gate with him. I heard his voice calling me from behind a few times, faintly through the crowd, but I didn’t look back.
.
.
As expected, university was on a whole different level from high school. Even the wide entrance felt completely different.
“Yeah! This is what college is all about! I’m gonna make a cc too now!”
I thought the day was going to pass this smoothly. Time flew by, and before I knew it, it was time to choose a club. Everywhere, upperclassmen were waving and using microphones, making a huge fuss trying to get people to join their clubs. With so many people around, all I could keep repeating was
“Excuse me! Coming through!”
That’s when one club caught my eye.
“Huh? What’s that?? The band club? So romantic!”
I carefully looked around the band club booth. Then someone at the next table came over and handed me some papers, saying,
“Want to join the band club? It’s pretty doable.”
I hesitated at the sudden invitation, then said,
“Ah… you mean singing and stuff, right?”
The senior recruiting for the band club had unusual hair color. I thought it was white, but the back of his head was black—a style that was hard to describe.
‘As expected, I’m weak to handsome faces.’
I thought to myself and asked,
“Um… what’s your name?”
At my question, the senior smiled and replied,
“Eunho. Do Eunho.”
I nodded and asked another question.
“Is this your club, senior?”
Senior Eunho burst out laughing like something was hilarious, then said between breaths and laughter,
“Me? No, see that blue-haired guy over there? It’s his club. But somehow I ended up in charge. hahaha You can come apply anytime you need to. You can come to me, go to that blue-haired senior, or that pink-haired one over there—doesn’t matter.”
I looked around once.
‘Pink hair? Huh?! It really is pink hair!’
Flustered, I kept looking back and forth between the pink-haired senior and Senior Eunho.
“My name’s Chae Bonggu. But I prefer being called Bambi. Kinda unusual, right? haha”
When my eyes met Bonggu senior, who had been sitting quietly in a chair watching people, I unconsciously bowed 90 degrees.
‘He really looks cute… It’s not easy for an older guy to look that cute. Seriously, that’s amazing…’
I looked around and asked,
“If it’s the band club, what exactly do you do?”
At my question, the senior pointed at the blue-haired senior and said,
“Rather than hearing it from me, it’d be way more accurate to hear it from that senior over there. Yejun hyung!! Aren’t you recruiting for the band club?? Why are you leaving everything to me and Bonggu hyung?”
Then the person called Senior Yejun (the blue-haired senior) looked at us once, grabbed someone by the arm, and came running over with them.
“Who, who?? Is this your friend?”
Senior Yejun seemed like a gentle person. The smile on his face somehow felt… like a dad smile. The person next to him had a different vibe. Long hair, pale skin, and yellow hair.
“Oh, hello…”
I greeted them awkwardly with a smile. The two seniors smiled back and greeted me too.
“But… didn’t they say it’s kind of hard to recruit female students?”
The yellow-haired senior narrowed his eyes at Senior Yejun. Then Senior Yejun shook both hands as if denying it and said,
“No! If you can sing well and play an instrument a bit, there’s no problem joining. The only issue is… stuff like MTs… other than that, everything’s fine.”
I said with a smile,
“MTs? Why would that be a problem?”
At my words, Senior Bonggu lowered his phone and answered,
“Because all our officers are guys. You might feel awkward if you join… and of course we’d feel awkward too.”
At Senior Bonggu’s words, Senior Eunho said with a smile,
“It’s not that we’re awkward, it’s just that you might feel awkward. Usually if you’re the only girl, it can feel a bit lonely, right? You’d have to share a room by yourself, and there’d be no roommate…”
Even while talking, Senior Eunho fiddled with the application form.
“If it feels uncomfortable, you don’t have to join. We just finished recruiting one person anyway.”
Right after he said that, Hamin came walking over and said,
“Senior, I filled out the application.”
Yu Hamin handed the form to the senior and looked at me once.
‘That look… what, am I supposed to do something?’
I looked back at him, gesturing what am I supposed to do? with my hands. Then Yu Hamin stopped mid-walk, changed direction, and came over to me. The moment he stood in front of me, he matched my eye level and said,
“Don’t come in. Let’s not mess with each other’s school life either.”
That only made me more stubborn.
‘Oh, you think so? Fine. You selfish jerk.’
I took the application form from Senior Eunho’s hand. And in front of Hamin, I carefully wrote my name letter by letter.
‘Kim Plie’
My prediction was wrong. Yu Hamin watched me filling out the application form without the slightest reaction. And only after I finished did he greet the seniors and leave.
‘What? Did I get caught up in that scammer’s pace again? Or is he just poker-faced?’
Maybe they sensed the weird vibe between me and Yu Hamin, because the seniors kept looking back and forth between me and Hamin as he walked away.
‘So what if I got dragged into his pace? This is my college life.’
I smiled and handed the application form to Senior Yejun.
“The band club seems fun.”
All the seniors gave faint smiles and exchanged glances with one another.
That was the start of the band club.
