A New Room Needs Cleaning
The new club room they would use for the semester left an impression on both Yeoncheong and Suyeon that exceeded their expectations.
There had been plenty of clutter piled up, and the dust was a problem—but both could be solved with a good cleaning. What remained was a cozy little hideaway with a desk spacious enough to lie down on.
Hideaway was a word Suyeon had come up with on the walk home. Tucked away in a corner where few students would bother to look, it was perfect for the name.
Yeoncheong liked it too.
A secret base at school carried a heart-fluttering charm that appealed to anyone regardless of age—and besides, she far preferred the club room being called a hideaway than her own house.
Anyway, that was the day after they'd parted with a promise to finish all the cleaning the next day.
Maybe it's from moving all that heavy stuff yesterday... I'm exhausted.
She forced her heavy eyelids open and sat through class.
"Guys, save me!"
"Nope. You two can hang out with each other during breaks. Lunch is ours."
"It's not like we're going to eat you alive. Yeoncheong, saying that hurts our feelings."
Lunchtime came, and she was practically kidnapped by Suyeon and Seoha. More classes followed, and then, at last, the final bell rang.
The moment dismissal ended, Yeoncheong pulled a mask out of her bag.
Nayun, who had been gathering her things and heading for the gym, tilted her head at the sight.
"What's the mask for?"
"The club room."
Only then did Nayun remember the conversation the three of them had shared during break.
"Ah, right—the first-years get the old room, was it?"
"Yeah. The new one we're taking used to be a storage room."
"That does feel kind of unfair. Do you guys absolutely have to move?"
Yeoncheong shrugged as if to say it couldn't be helped.
Brand-new first-years often hadn't chosen their clubs yet, so they needed the bigger classroom. They could have dug in their heels and made it work, but there was no reason to sour feelings over something like that. With a total membership of two, the move quite obviously fell to them.
"Want us to help?"
Hasol, returning from organizing her locker, peeked over from behind.
Yeoncheong mentally mapped out the work ahead, then shook her head.
"It's fine."
The boxes and assorted junk had all been hauled out to the hallway yesterday, and the actual cleaning inside shouldn't take too long.
"What a relief. I wasn't planning on helping anyway."
"Why, you—"
Nayun just loved adding useless remarks like that to get a rise out of people. She dodged the swatting hand with a snicker.
Yeoncheong shot her infuriating friend a sideways glare, then spoke up again as if remembering something.
"If you're curious, come by later and watch. If we're not done cleaning by then, that's when you can help."
"Got it."
"Sure, that much is fine. Where exactly did you say it was, again?"
At Nayun's question about the precise location, Yeoncheong faltered.
How was she supposed to describe this place... It felt wedged into some leftover scrap of space, so hard to pin down with words.
As she stood there hemming and hawing, the neighboring class finished dismissal at just that moment, and Suyeon came looking for her.
"Yeoncheong, let's go."
"Right. Um... text me if you're coming."
And so the two of them bustled off toward the new club room.
Hasol and Nayun, who had come out of the classroom together, felt their hearts lurch.
"That was kind of sad to watch..."
Who knew how long she'd been watching? The sight of Seoha staring blankly at the spot where Yeoncheong and Suyeon had vanished was grim indeed.
They at least got to be together at lunch, but with the student council busy preparing for the election of a new president, Seoha had precious little time with Suyeon by comparison.
"S-Seoha? You okay?"
"...Mm. One month. No—not even a month. Just a little longer, and it'll be over."
She seemed to have some kind of plan in mind. Saying see-you-tomorrow, Seoha brushed past the two of them.
"What's that about? Looks like she's scheming something."
"Hmm... if she wants to keep both of them happy, she'd better start building up some stamina."
Seeing Seoha so obviously aching for something made Yeoncheong worry—but Yeoncheong was the one who had confessed to having feelings for everyone in the first place.
The two friends could only conclude that it couldn't be helped.
She'd had a feeling, and sure enough.
Teacher Jisu, who yesterday had only tossed them a hurried word before dashing off, was waiting in front of the club room today.
"There you are, girls."
Her outfit was far lighter than it had been at dismissal—she had clearly come fully prepared to help.
Suyeon, as if she'd expected exactly this, waved her head side to side and stepped toward the teacher.
"Ah, Teacher, you really don't need to help."
"How are the two of you supposed to handle all this? You still have to sort out what gets thrown away and what goes to storage. Don't push yourselves too hard."
She had a point, and refusing her over and over would just be rude.
Suyeon gave a small bow of gratitude.
"...Thank you."
In the meantime, Yeoncheong opened the club room door and flicked the light switch out of habit.
"Oh, it works!"
Startled by the very light she herself had turned on, Yeoncheong gaped up at the ceiling. Teacher Jisu chuckled.
"What do you think? I told the school to fix it fast, since you'd be using it as a club room."
Just the added brightness completely transformed the atmosphere of the space.
Where before it had looked like an abandoned ruin, now it might pass for a merely (very) poorly maintained room.
Suyeon too peered inside, her eyes sparkling in the glow of the new lights—then a sudden question crossed her mind.
"Huh? Don't we have the key?"
"Of course there's a spare. And besides."
It went without saying that a spare key existed, in case of loss.
But Teacher Jisu glanced around furtively, as if about to say something more, and lowered her voice.
"Just keep that key with you."
"Really?"
The club room was only supposed to be used after school, and returning the key when they left was standard procedure.
Granted, Suyeon sometimes (often) forgot to return it, but that was purely a mistake—and every time, she'd earned herself a scolding from Teacher Jisu.
The teacher's current statement flew directly in the face of all that, so their reaction was only natural.
"Are we allowed?"
"Officially, no. And I feel bad about a lot of things. But this is you two, so I'm trusting you with it. You've only got one semester left anyway. You understand, right?"
Teacher Jisu then brought a finger to her lips and winked.
The universal sign for keep this between us.
Suyeon forcibly dragged down the corners of her twitching mouth and nodded, while Yeoncheong mimed zipping her lips shut to signal she understood.
Having said everything she needed to, the teacher clapped her hands and looked at the pair as if to say the real cleaning could finally begin.
"Okay~! So, who wants to sort through this stuff with me?"
"Suyeon will!"
Before the question had even finished, Yeoncheong shoved Suyeon forward.
The shoved friend wore a puzzled expression, but Yeoncheong had her reasons.
First, she was generally the one who cleaned more often—and was better at it. Second, remembering how Suyeon had shrieked at a spider, leaving her alone to clean this dust-riddled room was a liability. And last, she had bad memories of the annex basement warehouse and wanted no reason to go anywhere near it.
Hiding all of that behind a solemn face, Yeoncheong wet her lips with determination.
"I'll handle the cleaning in here, spotless."
Suyeon, who had been about to object, could only nod at the sight of her. She handed over the mask she'd brought, and she and Teacher Jisu set to sorting the junk being carried out of the room.
Once her mask was properly fitted, Yeoncheong turned to face the space she had to clean.
Perhaps because the lights made everything so visible, she felt anew just how long this room had been abandoned.
Not only did dust lie in thick layers on the shelves, the books, and the desktop—clumps of it rolled around on the floor to boot.
Now this is a room worth cleaning.
It was a state of affairs that stirred up a strangely competitive spirit.
Suyeon and Teacher Jisu sorted the clutter, then busied themselves shuttling between the recycling station and the storage room, while Yeoncheong shut herself inside, whipping dust off surfaces and sweeping the floor.
"Suyeon, great work out there."
"It was nothing. It went so much faster with your help."
"You sure I can't help some more?"
"No, the two of us can finish the rest in no time."
The two of them reunited only after Suyeon had wrapped up her errands with the teacher and stepped into the club room.
"Yeoncheong...?"
Suyeon had been busy running back and forth outside, so this was her first time seeing the interior.
The bookshelf and shelves had been dusted and even wiped down, gleaming under the fluorescent light, and the floor—where clumps of dust had rolled only hours ago—was, only slightly exaggerating, clean enough to lie down on.
Must be all that experience living on her own. She'd barely had a moment to marvel at how Yeoncheong had nearly finished the whole cleaning alone in so little time.
Then Suyeon spotted her friend—not answering when called—and cried out in alarm.
"Yeoncheong!"
"Huh? Wha—?"
Yeoncheong, teetering precariously with one foot on the windowsill, turned her head at her friend's shout—and the shift in her center of gravity sent her body tilting.
Suyeon bolted forward to catch her before she could fall...
"Hup!"
...but Yeoncheong simply hopped down and landed lightly on the floor.
"Yah, Ha Yeoncheong!"
Suyeon, clutching her chest in relief, smacked her friend on the back. Yeoncheong, whose defenses had dropped now that her blazer was off, twisted away in protest.
"Suyeon, ow! That hurts!"
"It's supposed to hurt!"
She took a good ten blows before Suyeon's anger was spent, and only then did she ask why.
"So. What were you doing something that dangerous for?"
"Dangerous? The curtains were filthy, so I was just taking them down..."
Her friend glanced at the curtains. Sure enough, they were so caked with dust that they'd have to be washed before they could be called clean again.
But that was that, and this was this.
"Why were you doing it alone? Ask for help, ask someone to bring a ladder—say something!"
"I mean... I could reach it if I stretched."
Once again, Yeoncheong was technically telling the truth.
Several of the curtain hooks had, in fact, come loose.
But desks and chairs were sitting right below, so it had also been a recklessly dangerous stunt.
"Don't ever do that again. What if you'd gotten hurt?"
"Sorry..."
Only now grasping the sincerity behind her friend's worry, Yeoncheong scratched her head and apologized.
"Let's get a ladder. I'll ask Teacher Jisu."
"Do we really need to?"
At the thought that she still didn't get it, Suyeon shot her a sharp glare, and Yeoncheong hastily backpedaled.
"No, that's not it. It's just—you're here now. You can hold me steady, is what I mean. If we get a ladder, we have to put it back afterward. It's a hassle."
One must always listen to the end of what a Korean person has to say.
Suyeon found it tempting, actually. All that hauling of junk had worn her out, and she badly wanted to finish quickly and rest.
"You promise not to get hurt?"
"Come on. If you're holding me steady, there's nothing to worry about."
"Fine. Get up. I'll hold you from below."
And so Suyeon accepted the proposal.
Yeoncheong stepped up onto the window railing, and Suyeon braced her legs from below.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, all good."
Pop. Pop.
Little popping sounds rang out as the hooks came free, and Suyeon, unconsciously lifting her head to check on her friend's progress, flinched.
Sky blue...
In their shared eagerness to finish quickly, the two of them had overlooked one small fact.
When Yeoncheong stretched herself up onto her very tiptoes, Suyeon—holding her steady from below—couldn't help but see, whether she wanted to or not.
Unlike the curtain, which hung limply now that its hooks were out, the skirt swayed with every wriggle of its wearer's movements and every gust of wind, fluttering with an almost tantalizing grace. Suyeon's eyes crept stealthily upward along the sight at the edge of her vision.
It's for safety. If she suddenly falls, that would be dangerous. I have to watch what she's doing.
Just as she was chanting that flimsy excuse and savoring the rare view—
"Oh. So this is the place."
"Told you. Took us forever to find it, though."
At the familiar voices behind her, Suyeon's head whipped around.
There stood Hasol and Nayun. Faced with the arrival of two friends who had never been called, her face flooded with unmistakable panic.
"H-how did you—?"
"Yeoncheong invited us. Told us to come take a look. She texted too, but you weren't picking up..."
Yeoncheong, a beat behind, finally registered her friends' visit and wet her lips.
"Ah, sorry. My phone's in my blazer."
Reaching up with a blazer on would have been impossible, so she'd taken it off—which was why she'd missed their messages.
She'd known the visit was planned, of course. But that wasn't the problem right now.
The problem was Nayun, smirking openly at Suyeon. Suyeon sent her a silent signal to behave, but there was no stopping a friend whose mouth was already itching.
"Suyeon~ What color is Yeoncheong wearing today?"
As if answering Nayun's question, a mischievous spring breeze swept fiercely through the room.
The skirt of Yeoncheong, standing on the window railing, billowed out—and answered the question in Suyeon's stead.
Hasol's eyes went round as she covered her mouth, and beside her, Nayun's lips curled up in a wide grin.
"Sky's blue, hair's blue, panties are blue. What a view. And you had this all to yourself?"
"Huh? What are you talking—? Ah... ahh..."
Wondering what on earth they meant, Yeoncheong suddenly remembered the color of the underwear she had on.
By some twist of fate, paired with a cloudless blue sky, she had achieved perfect color coordination. Between the embarrassment and the spring breeze, her balance finally gave out, and she toppled.
Fortunately, Suyeon was right below her, so no one got hurt.
Fortunately?