The Knot Begins to Tangle (3)
The bell announcing lunchtime—honestly, the most exciting sound in the world every single time it rang.
I finished tidying up my desk in a hurry and, together with Jeong Hye-in, who had come looking for me at my seat as usual, made my way to the third floor.
"Soo-ah sunbae agreed to join us, right?"
"Yeah, she should be coming down about now."
The moment my words were out—and the instant we rounded the corner by the central staircase—a familiar, gloriously two-toned head of pudding-colored hair caught my eye.
"Hey there! Our Sihun hubae, and Hye-in hubae! Skipping lunch again today?"
The pale, worn-out look she'd worn that morning was nowhere to be found. Soo-ah sunbae, her usual energy fully restored, was waving at us with her whole arm.
Judging by her expression, that lunatic stalker hadn't shadowed her through lunch or done anything to her, apparently.
"Glad to see you're doing okay, sunbae. Shall we head in, then?"
"Yep, yep!"
The three of us walked the corridor side by side and stopped in front of the nameplate of clubroom number four, tucked into a corner of the third floor.
Anime Exploration Club
A crude little sign, the kind you'd print off and laminate in five minutes flat.
I took hold of the handle and slid the door open with a screech.
And the moment it opened, Soo-ah sunbae and I both froze dead in our tracks, as if we'd rehearsed it.
"Oh."
"Whoa..."
The scene spread out before us was a complete mismatch for the shabby sign we'd just seen outside. The floor was spotless—not a speck of dust to be found anywhere. The space was airy and roomy, as if two ordinary classrooms had been smashed together, and the table and chairs at its center weren't school issue at all but sleek hardwood furniture you'd expect in some upscale café. By the big, sun-drenched windows there were even two sofas, each looking about as plush as a decent bed.
"Huh... wait, there are only five of us in here killing time. Are we really allowed to just use a clubroom this big and nice?"
Just as I started to wonder—school allocation error, or Hye-in pulling strings behind the scenes—
"Of course you are!"
A very loud, very lively voice burst out from behind us.
"The student who'll have this place all to herself for the next year is none other than the youngest daughter of the Jungwoo Group! From the school's point of view, handing over the nicest, comfiest clubroom they've got is the least they can do, wouldn't you say?"
"...?"
A voice of such towering energy that just hearing it seemed to sweep the fatigue right out of my body and inject me with some strange vitality. It even sounded a notch higher than Soo-ah's.
I reflexively turned my head to find its owner. There, at the clubroom's back door, stood a girl with a bright, cheery head of cherry-colored hair tied up in twintails, one hand planted on her hip, smiling like she owned the world.
And the moment her face registered in my eyes, I found myself pressing a hand to my forehead and bowing my head deep.
...Yeah, no. This really can't be right.
My head began to throb. Thinking back on it now, the first red flag should have been the simple fact that a club called the Anime Exploration Club had never existed at all. No—if anything, I should have caught on the instant I first heard about the club out of Hye-in's mouth, of all people. To think the price of getting complacent would show up this fast.
The main heroine who lived and breathed cosplay and subculture. So this was how I'd end up tangled up with Han Yeo-wol...
Of course, my spiral didn't last long. Moaning and beating myself up in my head wasn't going to change anything, after all. So—calmly, from the top.
First: Hye-in and Yeo-wol. They didn't quite read as simple "friends"; the vibe was a little different. Close enough, privately, to found a club together? That was a setup I had never seen, not once. Still, that also neatly explains why the Anime Exploration Club never existed in the original story—by the original timeline, it obviously would have failed to round up the minimum five members and been shut down. For all that Yeo-wol was a social butterfly, her character had her own firm lines; she would never have settled for padding the roster with warm bodies.
Right. No need to panic too hard. Before anything ever happened to Yeo-wol anyway, my plan had been to quietly deal with that unhinged toxic fan's cosplay-terror event. If anything, being bound together under a club banner might even make it easier to track her movements.
Once my thoughts got that far and my chest loosened up a little, I unclenched my frozen facial muscles and managed my expression. Then I greeted our newly met clubmate with as much warmth as I could dredge up.
"Hi. I'm Kim Sihun."
"Whoa! Hye-in brought a boy? That's kinda new! Anyway, I'm Han Yeo-wol—nice to meet you!"
At my greeting, Yeo-wol burst into laughter in her trademark high pitch, then clapped her hands together as if something had just come to her and shouted:
"Oh! And the last, momentous member! I coaxed her here with the pitch that a club featuring our Hyein-ssu, who capped her first year ranked 6th in the whole grade, plus me, Han Yeo-wol, who tragically just missed the single digits at 11th, would be way better for study sessions—and barely managed to reel her in!"
"...To be precise, clubs are basically mandatory through second year, so me having no choice but to come along weighs a little more."
"Aww! Persuaded is persuaded, whatever the reason~"
With an exaggerated flourish—ta-da!—she stepped back a single pace. And the moment the last member, hidden behind her this whole time, came fully into view, I felt the composure I'd been desperately holding onto crumble.
Neatly gathered-up hair and glasses radiating an intellectual charm. A girl who looked every inch the strict student council officer. Seo Yujin.
...Seriously?
"Another girl... This way you're the only guy here—it's going to be uncomfortable for you, you know."
While my brain sat half-frozen from a two-hit combo I'd never seen coming, Hye-in glared at Yeo-wol and spoke up, open displeasure lacing her voice. But Yeo-wol only shrugged and shot back like she hadn't taken a scratch.
"I mean, did you ever once picture yourself bringing a boy into the club? The water's already spilled, so just roll with it~ Or, since we're here anyway, how about you show everyone your little secret—no, your hidden charm..."
"Mmph! Mmmph!"
The instant something that looked plenty dangerous threatened to fly out of Yeo-wol's mouth, Hye-in lunged and clapped a hand over it. Seeing her flustered and scrambling like that was about as unfamiliar as it gets.
Amid the circus, I gathered my scattered wits and peeked ahead. Yujin, textbooks hugged tight to her chest, was staring dead at my face. Her look seemed to be asking, with zero subtlety: Just how bad are your grades that Hye-in dragged you in here? Hurry up and tell me.
This is bad. Last year I'd genuinely just doodled at things, all my focus going into reviving my touch. At best, early Grade 3... no, that's not the point. Coming back to my senses, I was looking at people who—even entangled with just one—signaled the end of any ordinary school life. And not one of them. Four of them, gathered in a single room, each radiating her own presence. Any comfy little hope that I could keep this under control had long since flown off somewhere very far away.
I glanced up at the ceiling, then bowed my head and fished a chunky lump of wood out of my pocket.
Who even knows anymore. Guess I'll just carve.
After that, before the awkwardness of a first meeting had even finished wearing off, we gathered in front of the blackboard and, in about ten minutes flat, polished off the paperwork—the club plan sheet listing our goals and our future schedule—with lightning efficiency.
"Okay! Paperwork's done, so let's have ourselves a proper round of introductions, hm?"
Yeo-wol clapped her hands and livened up the room. First to step forward, she gave her twintailed cherry hair a little swing and puffed out her chest with total confidence.
"Hello again! I'm Han Yeo-wol from Class 2-3. My hobbies are watching anime and cosplaying! If it's subculture, I'm confident about literally any of it—looking forward to our time together!"
Her brimming smile and sunny voice had me nodding along before I realized it. Next, as if she'd been waiting for her turn, Yujin rose from her seat, dipped into a neat bow, and began.
"I'm Seo Yujin from Class 2-4. I serve on the student council, and rather than a hobby... I mostly like spending my spare time on advanced study. Everyone, I look forward to working with you."
Her crisp, intellectual voice brought the clubroom's air into even tidier order. And the one to flip that quiet right back over was Soo-ah sunbae, sprawled across the sofa.
"Hi hi! I'm Choi Soo-ah from Class 3-2! My special skills are taking photos and striking pretty poses? I've watched a ton of anime and webtoons too! Don't go all stiff on me just because I'm a third-year—treat me casually, juniors!"
Between her trademark good-natured grin and that effortless wink, even Yujin let a light smile slip. Then Hye-in rose from her seat, slow and unhurried.
"Jeong Hye-in, Class 2-4. My hobby is... lately, looking at wood carvings. Nice to meet you."
Finally, my turn came around. I set the block of wood I'd been fidgeting with in my pocket down on the desk and said it flat.
"Hello, Kim Sihun, Class 2-4. Not a hobby so much as a job? Anyway, I like sculpting. Looking forward to it."
With the quick round of names complete, Yeo-wol stepped up once more.
"Great! Now let's get even closer—ask each other whatever you're curious about!"
The words were barely out when Yujin's hand shot up, like she'd been waiting for exactly this. Her two eyes locked dead on me and Soo-ah sunbae.
"I did come along because Yeo-wol talked me into it, but I'd like to keep some focus on my actual purpose here—the study sessions."
"Mm-hm! Ask away!"
"So then, Kim Sihun—and Choi Soo-ah sunbae. I'd like you both to tell me your current grades, please."
……
A question about our grades, fired off with no gap to breathe. Soo-ah sunbae and I, as if we'd coordinated it, whipped our gazes away in perfect sync and began observing the clouds outside the window. Then, in the suffocating silence that followed, sunbae broke first with an awkward cough.
"Ahem. So, here's the thing. I was so busy throwing myself into my modeling career that I barely had any attention left for grades... so, I'm somewhere in the late Grade 4 range."
At that answer, Yujin's composed brow crumpled in what could only be called tragedy. Genuine horror spread across her face, as if she'd witnessed something unspeakable that had no business existing in this world.
Just how serious about studying is she...?
I knew she was already being ground down by an obsession with studying—or more precisely, with being an elite—but seeing it live, I couldn't even gauge the depth of it. In any case, before the mood could curdle for no good reason, I hurried to pick up the baton.
"M-me, I'm early Grade 3 overall. I did hit Grade 2 in math and integrated science."
At my words, Yujin's murderously crumpled expression loosened, just a little. A faint flicker of relief, as if to say I wasn't a lost cause after all. Of course, that didn't exactly turn the whole atmosphere around. So, to flip this stiff air on its head fast, I quickly switched topics and lobbed out a question of my own.
"By the way, have you two always been close?"
A question about the pairing of Yeo-wol and Yujin—two people who seemed to share nothing at all. Before Yujin could get a word out, Yeo-wol cheerfully snatched the answer away.
"Well, we've been friends since middle school, and whether you're 1st or 11th in the grade, you're both sitting in the same Grade 1 band, right? Thanks to that we started studying together after school and got even closer!"
To her explanation, Yujin neither confirmed nor denied. Watching that quiet, demure reaction, I clicked my tongue inside.
Haah. If this was how it was going to be, I should've paired Yeo-wol and Yujin together and pushed through the Anime Exploration Club route from the very beginning.
Anyway, with even that brief Q&A done, an awkward silence sank over the clubroom once more—the silence of people who'd run out of things to say. That was when Soo-ah sunbae, who'd been biding her time, leapt up from her seat as if to say now's my moment. Her iron resolve to somehow take charge of the mood, as a self-proclaimed third-year senior, was plain to see.
"Right, right! We've done the names and gotten somewhat friendly, but that's not enough, is it? So first, let's share our tastes—starting with the anime we each love!"
Soo-ah sunbae propped her chin on her fingers and beamed wide.
"And from what I saw earlier, Hye-in hubae, you seem pretty interested in anime and cosplay yourself, hm?"
"N-no! I don't know the first thing about any of that."
Hye-in threw out her usual calm tone entirely and denied it, waving her hands off so frantically it showed. Her eyes swinging wide with panic—another unfamiliar sight, and then some. Anyone could tell this was about to get rowdy in a whole new way.
And in this mess, there was exactly one way for me to survive: empty my head appropriately and ride the flow. Slipping my carving knife into the corner of the walnut block I'd pulled out at some point, I eased myself naturally into the conversation.
"Well, I watched the one that got its theatrical release a while back. The animation on the action scenes was pretty solid."
"I saw that too! I was actually toying with the idea of cosplaying as the lead... Sihun, was it? Which character did you like best?"
"Uh... probably the warrior woman with the battle axe..."
"Really? I love Reniella too! You said earlier that your dream was sculpting—have you ever carved a weapon like a battle axe?"
Yeo-wol fired her barrage of questions, genuinely buzzing. And me, fielding each one politely despite the sudden onslaught. Even as I felt something tangling itself firmly, inexorably, around me—
I got to work, for now, on the things I could actually do.