Club (2)
Club (2)
"Jin-hyeok-ah, is this the right place? There are so many people..."
Hyun-woo asked in a frightened voice.
I opened the group chat with trembling hands. I needed some reality denial.
[Me]
: Sunbae-nims. I'm in front of the club room right now.
: There are hella people in front of the door... Is this really Utopia?
The reply came quickly.
[Class of '18 Kim Min-soo]
: Yeah, that's the place...
[Class of '17 Jin Do-yoon (President)]
: If you ask them to move, they'll probably move...
: Probably...
Probably? My vision went dark at the President's lack of confidence.
It was then.
"Oh? It's a guy."
"Must be freshmen."
The gazes of the female students filling the hallway pierced us all at once. Curiosity and heat radiated from dozens of eyes. Hyun-woo tried to hide behind my back.
Hesitating here would only make us more of a spectacle. I tried to act nonchalant and stepped toward the crowd.
"Coming through."
I spoke in the driest, most business-like voice possible.
Then, something amazing happened.
Sreureuk.
The tightly packed crowd split to both sides. Like the miracle of Moses, a path to the door opened up as if by magic.
"Wow, they're actually moving..."
Hyun-woo marveled, but I didn't have time to respond and knocked on the door.
Ttok, ttok.
"Sunbae-nims. This is Seol Jin-hyuk and Park Hyun-woo from the Class of '20."
Dalkak.
I heard the sound of the lock clicking open from inside. The firmly closed iron door opened, and we pushed ourselves inside as if escaping.
Cheolkeok.
Only after the door closed did a wave of relief wash over me.
"···Oh."
It was wider than I thought.
Cut off from the noise outside, a quiet and comfortable space unfolded. A few old sofas, a table, and piles of delivery food containers in the corner.
"Oh, welcome. You're the freshmen who came this time, right?"
A man who had been leaning back on the sofa stood up.
"Hello."
"Yeah, sure. Make yourselves comfortable. I'm Jeon Dae-hoon, Class of '18. You're Seol Jin-hyuk... and the one next to you is Park Hyun-woo?"
I gave him a quick scan.
A fairly sturdy build. And a relaxed expression.
He possessed a level of confidence that was nowhere to be found in the typical intimidated demeanor of men in this world.
'This person... is different from Hyun-woo.'
He was far from timid.
Could he be the legendary 'King Bee' type? Certainly. With that kind of aura, it didn't seem like he would be intimidated when dealing with the women outside.
Looking around, I saw a few other Sunbaes. But they were all sprawled out on the sofas like corpses sleeping, or focused on mobile games with earphones plugged in.
That indifference, not even caring that new men had entered.
'···This really is Utopia.'
Outside was a dystopia where women were dying to get a piece of a man. But across this single door, perfect peace was being maintained.
Jeon Dae-hoon Sunbae-nim held out a piece of paper.
"Are you going to join the club? Well, this isn't a club with any actual activities. If you want to sleep during your free periods, feel free to come whenever. Just keep your name on the roster."
"Of course I have to join."
There was no reason to hesitate. A refuge like this was an essential element of school life.
"But Sunbae-nim. Is it okay to join here and do other club activities as well?"
I asked just in case.
"Well, it doesn't matter. Do whatever you want. We don't interfere."
Cool as expected. He waved his hand dismissively without even looking.
"What about you, Hyun-woo? What do you want to do?"
"I-I have to join too!"
Hyun-woo nodded quickly. For us, exhausted by the gazes of the outside world, there was no reason to refuse such a sanctuary.
"Okay. Just fill out the paperwork over there."
We sat across from each other at the table and filled out the application forms. Name, student ID number, contact information.
Sagak-sagak, the sound of the pen scratching the paper. And the regular snoring of a Sunbae lying on the sofa played like background music.
Peaceful. My heart finally felt at ease.
However.
As I looked around, there was one problem. The space itself was quite large, but because there were so many people, there wasn't really a proper place to sit.
The plush-looking sofas were already occupied by senior Sunbaes who looked like corpses. The tables were also full of people playing mobile games.
'···Should I bring a folding mat later and spread it in the corner?'
It felt a bit pathetic, but it would still be a hundred times better than the prison of gazes in the outside world.
I put down my pen and rested my chin on my hand for a moment.
'Should I look into other refuges... I mean, other clubs?'
This place was good, but the population density was too high. For my perfect rest, I needed a Plan B.
I should go out and look for myself. Somewhere in a corner of this vast campus, there had to be at least one more dusty, ghost club that people didn't visit.
And the distance between school and home was a 40-minute round trip. When I had a massive gap between classes, going home was the best option. But when the time was awkward, even that travel time was a luxury.
As expected, I needed one more hideout of my own on campus.
I twirled my ballpoint pen and asked casually.
"Sunbae-nim, do all the members of the Male Student Association join here?"
"Hmm?"
Jeon Dae-hoon Sunbae-nim replied without taking his eyes off his phone.
"No. Some of them join other clubs. Like the band, or places like that."
"Ah..."
"You guys can go somewhere else if you want. It doesn't matter. We're all about laissez-faire here."
He gave a wide yawn and added nonchalantly.
"If you need anything while attending school or if you get stuck, feel free to ask anytime."
"Yes, thank you."
Reliable. Is this why people say you have to pick the right line to follow?
"Hmm... It's already this time."
Jeon Dae-hoon Sunbae-nim looked at his watch and stood up.
"I'm heading out. Hey, Min-soo. You take over for me. I have to go to class."
"Yeah, got it."
"Guys, I have my next class, so I'm leaving first. If you're curious about anything, ask those guys."
He grabbed his bag and headed toward the door. I also packed my things and stood up.
"Ah, Sunbae-nim. I'll head out too."
"Huh? You're leaving?"
Hyun-woo's eyes went wide.
I nodded.
"Yeah. I should look into other clubs during my free time. The sooner I figure out the school, the better."
Then Jeon Dae-hoon Sunbae-nim looked at me and said,
"Really? Then let's head out together since we're both leaving."
Sunbae-nim took the lead and grabbed the iron door handle.
Dalkak.
As soon as the door opened, the noise filling the hallway rushed in. The outside was still a sea of people.
'···Wow.'
I was worried about how to push through that again.
"Ah, fuck. It's Jeon Dae-hoon."
Someone in the hallway shouted in disgust. In an instant, all eyes turned toward the door.
At that moment.
Jeon Dae-hoon Sunbae-nim roared loud enough to shake the hallway.
"Hey, come on!! Clear the way!! Let us through already!!!"
A thunderous vibration.
It was less of a request and more like the rage of a truck driver honking his horn on a congested road.
Whether they were overwhelmed by that ignorant level of guts or just avoiding him because their eardrums might burst, the dense crowd split apart like an ebbing tide.
"······?"
I stared blankly up at Sunbae-nim's back.
What is this guy? A thug?
Jeon Dae-hoon Sunbae-nim turned back and grinned.
"See? The kids at our school are nice, so if you ask, they'll move out of the way."
"······."
Ask...? Was that just now an 'ask'? It was more like a Lion's Roar of a shout.
I thought briefly as I watched his receding back.
They say men in this world are usually divided into two types. Timid men who live suppressed by women's energy. Or arrogant Casanovas who treat women like toys.
But.
That Sunbae-nim had the guts to shout loud enough to shake the hallway instead of being timid, yet I didn't feel any shallow arrogance trying to use women.
'···He's a strange person.'
He seemed like a weirdo who didn't care about the rules of this twisted world where the gender ratio was 1 to 9 and just acted however he damn well pleased.
Perhaps even if he were dropped into the original world I lived in, he would be the type of person to clear a path with a loud voice like that.
I followed behind Sunbae-nim and pushed through the crowd without hesitation. Only when I got outside the building did I feel like I could breathe.
"Take care. Contact me whenever you need something. My girlfriends are coming soon, so I'm off."
He waved his hand dismissively and disappeared. Even his back looked refreshing.
"···Thank you."
I gave a short bow and turned on my phone.
Now, during the remaining free time, I had to find my own sanctuary. Utopia was a failure. It had already become a tourist attraction.
What I wanted was a real 'Ghost Club.' A place where no one set foot, dusty and quiet.
I turned on the school community board and typed into the search bar.
[Failed clubs]
[Clubs with no people]
[Sleeping room]
I scrolled through a few posts, but nothing really caught my eye.
Most of them said they were 'failed' but were actually clubs where people drank and hung out, or said they had 'no people' while subtly encouraging socializing.
What I was looking for was something deeper, a club that 'only existed in name.'
Then, at the end of the scroll, an old post caught my eye.
[ (Always Recruiting) Hanlim Classic Studies Society ]
It was a promotional post, but the date was... 2018?
'···Is this even still active?'
The post was so old it looked like the club might have been disbanded. But a thick scent of a hipster vibe wafted from the name. No, should I call it a musty smell?
A Classic Studies Society. Who in the world would come to university these days to dig into the classics?
Women would surely hate it and avoid it.
'···It seems pathetic.'
That's why I liked it.
A perverted curiosity that was strangely drawn to things others avoided, saying, "Hey, isn't that a bit much?" or things that seemed doomed to fail, where people asked, "Is that even possible?"
Wasn't it that very reckless inquisitiveness—the need to taste something to know if it's shit or soybean paste, and only realizing "Ah, this wasn't it" right before things truly go to hell—that kept me from letting go of S-Gong and made me crawl into this school with a 1:9 gender ratio?
The smell of 'failure' wafting from that old sign was stimulating my instincts.
"I have to go check it out right now."
Fortunately, the location was close to the Engineering Building.
On the way to the building, the campus scenery vividly showed the abnormal state of romance in this world.
Women kissing deeply in a corner of a bench. Female couples walking affectionately with fingers interlocked.
Among them, I even saw a female student walking while rubbing her stomach in a loose one-piece dress.
'Is she pregnant? Or did she just gain weight?'
It was hard to tell. Well, in a world where sperm banks are as common as convenience stores and it's natural to have a baby without a father, it wouldn't be strange even if it were the former.
And in between them, a man walking leisurely with a woman on each arm. There was even a guy who had three or four women following him like he was the Pied Piper.
'Truly... quite a sight.'
Suddenly, I thought of the famous 'Casanova No. 1 and No. 2' among the Class of '20. They weren't in my department, but the rumors were already widespread.
On the night of the Orientation, they supposedly had a grand old time pounding away with the girls from their own department.
Seeing such rumors spread as soon as the semester started...
This place is nothing short of an animal kingdom.