A New Home for the Homeless Beavers
After spending an entire day writing and submitting letters of apology to their respective homeroom teachers, the two of them stood before Teacher Jisu — and the news that hit them was nothing short of a bolt from the blue.
"Girls. I'm going to need you to clear out your club room."
She'd said there was something to discuss about the club, but Yeoncheong and Suyeon, having expected nothing of the sort, stared at each other in disbelief.
Then, in perfect unison, they both turned to Teacher Jisu and let out the exact same cry.
"What!?"
Granted, with a total membership of two, it wasn't technically wrong to call it *their* club room — but the two of them belonged to the Free Inquiry Club.
Even Yeoncheong, who sometimes forgot herself in how free and laid-back the atmosphere was, knew the truth: it was a temporary shelter for students who hadn't picked a club of their own. The kind of club every grade had exactly one of.
And now they were being told, out of nowhere, to vacate the club room.
Yeoncheong struggled to keep up with the sudden turn of events, while Suyeon's lips flapped at a pitch of pure agitation.
"Why? Don't tell me it's because we fought yesterday? Even so, that's not fair!"
"Suyeon, calm down. Breathe. She hasn't even finished talking."
Teacher Jisu made soothing gestures at Suyeon, who was firing off words in a flurry of excitement, while Yeoncheong stepped in beside her to talk her friend down and hear the whole story first.
A moment later, once the teacher confirmed Suyeon had settled, she spoke again.
"It's not because you fought. Honestly, I called you in before that ever happened. Right, Yeoncheong?"
"...Ah. Yes. That's right."
Having cleanly cleared up the suspicion, Teacher Jisu continued.
"The thing is... this is a problem that exists, in a way, *because* your club is still technically running."
By the rules, there should be one Free Inquiry Club per grade — but only on paper.
In practice, by the middle of second year — if not sooner — everyone had nested into a new club or settled into study halls, and the second-year club room sat empty.
So it had become an unspoken tradition: the first-year Free Inquiry Club simply carried on using their room when they moved up to second year, and the abandoned second-year room passed on to the brand-new first-years.
Third years? With not even second-years around, the idea of anyone still lingering there was laughable.
Anyway, this year could have gone the same way... if not for the existence of two oddballs named Suyeon and Yeoncheong.
"So you're saying we have to hand over the room, which means the two of us are now homeless."
At Suyeon's tidy summary, Teacher Jisu bobbed her head — that was exactly it.
They now understood why the room had to be cleared. What they hadn't heard yet was what would become of them.
Yeoncheong, finally keeping pace with the conversation, raised the question.
"So what happens to us now?"
"You'll keep doing club activities, of course. It's just a name at this point, but you're still on the school's official club registry, so I can't force you into something else."
Presumably she'd assumed no third-year would ever remain in a club like this, because the regulations had never been touched.
It was welcome news to hear.
Suyeon, who had kicked up a fuss for nothing, let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness. Anywhere's fine. There's only two of us, so it can be small."
"Ahem... about that. That's actually the biggest problem. There's nowhere left."
"Excuse me? Why would you save the most important part for last..."
They were only doing the club for a single semester more.
Did it really have to be this much of an ordeal?
***
Classrooms where students actually spent their days were off-limits for club rooms due to theft concerns, so clubs normally used science labs, art rooms, or the old classrooms in the annex.
But Hwaryeong High School actively encouraged club activities, and with so many clubs in existence, there was currently not a single space to spare.
"So... they're proposing that you take a small space that used to be used as storage. It'll need a bit of cleaning, but... how does that sound to you?"
Since this was ultimately the school's own blunder, only noticed after the semester had begun, Teacher Jisu offered the alternative with an apologetic look.
"...It's fine. Cleaning is just cleaning. There's only two of us — what would we do with a big space anyway?"
Suyeon, exchanging a glance with Yeoncheong, gave the official acceptance, and this time it was Teacher Jisu who breathed a sigh of relief.
"Girls. I'm truly sorry, and truly grateful."
"Oh, come on. It's not even your fault, Teacher."
Faced with a teacher bowing her head again and again, apologizing and thanking them over a mistake that wasn't even hers, the two offered quick farewells and made their escape from the teachers' office.
That kind of attitude was why she was beloved by students and held up as a model educator...
But there was no denying that an adult's earnest apology could feel a little heavy to be on the receiving end of.
"Yeoncheong. Did you grab the key?"
"Yep, got it. And she told me where it is."
Yeoncheong opened her tightly clenched right hand to reveal a single key.
Suyeon took it and hurried their pace.
"Let's get there fast and clear it out ourselves. She might come up to help."
"Nah... no way she'd do that."
"Can you guarantee it?"
"...Suyeon. Let's run."
And together they broke into a sprint toward what would be their new club room.
***
A deep corner of the annex. So deep, in fact, that even Yeoncheong and Suyeon had never seen it before — a space they hadn't even known existed, to be exact.
"This is the place?"
"Must be — the key went in."
Even after all the trouble of finding it, Yeoncheong remained half-doubtful, so Suyeon showed her the key sliding smoothly into the lock.
Just how long had it gone untouched, for dust to pile up even on the door handle? And if this had truly been used as storage, how filthy must the inside be?
Suyeon looked at her friend with a tense expression.
"Sh-shall we open it?"
"Yeah. Open it."
Yeoncheong raised her sleeve over her mouth, and following her lead, Suyeon did the same as she pushed the door open.
*Whoosh!*
Dust and stale air came pouring out.
Even with their mouths covered, both burst into coughing simultaneously — so the state of the interior, abandoned for years, hardly needed describing.
Yeoncheong fanned the air near her face and stepped in first.
"Wow. How is there this much random junk?"
The old wooden bookshelf sagged with books of every kind, their spines bleached by time, while atop the large desk — big enough to seat four — sat mystery boxes blanketed in dust.
In the corner, four chairs were stacked in a precarious tower, hinting that this room had once been a club room of its own.
"Y-Yeoncheong. *Cough.* Stay with me."
"Stay there. I'm just going to open the window for some air and head right back out."
The ceiling light refused to flicker on — likely dead of old age — and Yeoncheong cautiously edged deeper inside.
Something kept brushing against her feet, and though she couldn't see clearly, the floor looked every bit as filthy as she'd feared.
Curtains hung there too, and the deeper in she went, the darker it grew. She narrowed her stride to keep from tripping, feeling her way along with her hands toward the window.
Seizing the swaying curtain and yanking it aside, she let the warm afternoon sunlight spill into the room.
The dust swirling through the air glittered, creating a scene of pointless beauty — but she was far too busy wheezing and wrestling with the stubborn window to appreciate it.
"Yeoncheong, I'll help."
"Almost... got... it... aaargh!"
Shaking a window that had gone as rigid as a wall from years of disuse, it began to give way bit by bit. The moment she caught her breath and gave one final mighty pull, she toppled backward with a crash — and the window flew open.
There was no screen, and unlike the sunlight, a faintly cool, fresh breeze came sweeping in, stirring the dust-caked curtains.
"Yeoncheong!"
Startled, Suyeon came bounding across the room, plowing straight through the dust-laden gust.
Call it a stroke of luck, really — thanks to all the piled-up junk, she hadn't been badly hurt. The problem was that her body had wedged awkwardly into the debris, and she couldn't get out on her own.
"I'm fine. Just grab my hand."
"Got i— KYAAAH!"
And then.
The hand Suyeon extended to help her up suddenly began hammering away at her head.
"OW! What! What are you doing!"
Yeoncheong, pinned and helpless, screamed along with the assault.
"A spider! Ugh... there's a spider on your head!"
"A spider? Hey! Wait! Don't swat it! I said don't swat it!"
If there's a spider on someone's head, you brush it off. But Suyeon, in full panic, was trying to beat it to death.
Yeoncheong wasn't particularly squeamish about spiders. But watching Suyeon's hand come down in fierce, rapid blows, she couldn't help imagining the sight of a dead spider tangled in her hair.
A wave of dizziness hit her, and she went white, desperately throwing up both arms to block her friend's hands.
"Suyeon! Get a grip and just *lift it off*. Don't kill it!"
"No way! I can't do that! I'm just gonna kill it!"
"No! You can't!"
Four arms flailed wildly in the air for a long while.
The spider clinging to Yeoncheong's head — radiating the languid air of a creature wondering what on earth these humans were on about — caught the breeze and drifted out into the bright world beyond.
"Huh...? It's gone."
"Ugh... my head hurts..."
And only after a considerable time had passed did the two of them realize the spider was gone.
***
Once the whole commotion had died down.
Yeoncheong rubbed her throbbing head and shot her friend a look.
"There really was a spider?"
Not on her head, not anywhere around her — not a single spider in sight. Her suspicion was entirely justified. But Suyeon, who had witnessed the creature with her own two eyes, looked ready to leap around in outrage at the injustice.
"Ah! I'm TELLING you it was real. You don't believe me?"
Her eyes bulged, her speech sped up dramatically — she certainly looked genuinely wronged. But this was the girl who traded first and second place with Nayun on the prank leaderboard.
Yeoncheong's doubt was simply karma coming due.
Perhaps she'd given up defending herself with no way to prove it, because Suyeon rose to her feet again.
"Fine... don't believe me, then."
"Okay, okay. I believe you. So stop sulking."
"I'm not sulking."
She said this while very much continuing to push her lips out in a pout.
In Yeoncheong's experience, it was best to defuse this quickly, or it came back to bite her later.
"Fine, fine, I get it. Come on, let's lift this thing together. It looked pretty heavy."
She darted to the opposite side of the box from Suyeon, helped hoist it with her, and flashed a grin — and even her friend's jutting-out pout softened a little.
"How does this tiny room have SO many boxes and things?"
"Right? They told us not to throw anything away either, just in case."
With the room now decently aired out, the two were in the thick of hauling the accumulated junk back out into the hallway.
The original plan had been to finish cleaning today.
But there was simply so much stuff inside, and when Teacher Jisu dropped by later and said anything worth keeping had to be moved to the storage room, they couldn't toss a thing — just stack it neatly against the corridor wall instead.
On top of that, the airing-out had eaten up a good chunk of time, and the dust settled into the floor and furniture was no joke. There was absolutely no way it would all be done by tonight.
But they couldn't half-clean a space they'd be using for an entire semester either, so Yeoncheong and Suyeon decided to give themselves a generous two days and do the job properly.
"Careful, careful."
Setting the heavy box down gently, the two surveyed the room — noticeably roomier now — and smiled.
"Now that it's cleared out, it's bigger than I thought."
"Yeah. Honestly, being nice and cozy like this might be even better than the old room."
With all the clutter removed, the interior turned out far more satisfying than they'd imagined.
Not too big, not too small — just the right size. And unlike the classroom they'd used before, it had exactly the atmosphere that came to mind when you heard the words "club room." That especially appealed to her.
The dust was still thick, and the only usable things were the wide desk and the chairs.
But still.
"I like it."
It felt, at last, like they'd found a pretty good new home.