Romance Counseling Club (1)
"So, why did you text me yesterday?"
After school, a question that had suddenly occurred to me slipped out toward Shin Ayoung.
"……Huh?"
"I mean, you wouldn't have messaged me for no reason."
"Well…"
Shin Ayoung glanced around, checking whether anyone was listening. The only person nearby was Lee Sol, dozing off. Everyone else was busy packing up to leave and paid us no attention at all.
Shin Ayoung covered her mouth with the back of her hand and spoke in a low voice.
"…I just thought we could play a game together?"
"A game?"
"Yeah. Rule duo. It's a little laggy, but it works fine on a laptop."
Hadn't we just parted ways after hanging out at the PC bang? At this rate, she might actually be addicted to Rule.
"Or… are you free today, by any chance?"
A faint thread of expectation lingered in Shin Ayoung's eyes. Unfortunately, today was a Counseling Club day.
"I don't think I can—club stuff."
There was no telling when counseling would wrap up, and I couldn't exactly ask her to wait around forever.
"…Yeah? Oh well, then."
"Don't you have club today too?"
Club schedules varied by group, but they overlapped more often than not. My guess was right—Shin Ayoung nodded.
"I do, but… I'm planning to finish early and get out."
— "I'd rather not go at all… but I can't just skip."
If I remembered right, she was in the Drama Club. Up until recently she'd been going without a word of complaint, but for the past few days she'd been reacting like this. Something was clearly going on—I just didn't know what.
Even if I could read thoughts, I had no way of knowing what she never let surface in her mind. Instead, other thoughts drifted across.
— "Ugh. I want to play Rule, but there's nobody to play with…"
Shin Ayoung's mini-me flopped onto the desk and started rolling back and forth. On the outside she looked perfectly fine.
"…What?"
"Nothing."
Shin Ayoung gave me a look that said she had no idea what I was staring at. Perfectly fine, indeed.
— "Ugh."
On the inside, not so much. Her mini-me sighed and kept rolling around.
— "Ugh, ugh."
…She was making it really hard not to notice.
"……"
There were plenty of people who'd play with her. More than a few guys would come running the second she called. The problem was that none of them approached her with pure gaming in mind. Every last one of them had some other intention tucked away, and Shin Ayoung could feel it. That was probably why she was asking me—because she simply wanted to play a game.
— "Ugh, ugh, ugh."
Watching mini Shin Ayoung sigh over and over, I found myself sighing too. Man.
"If I've got time after club, we can go."
— "…!"
At those words, Shin Ayoung's mini-me shot upright.
"I'll finish up fast, so wait for me."
And with that, Shin Ayoung vanished on the spot—wrapping up the conversation so cleanly I didn't even get a chance to say anything else.
"……"
I watched her go, then turned around. In front of me was Lee Sol, still slumped over her desk.
"Hey, we're going too. Get up already."
I poked and squished her cheek over and over. The springy softness snapped right back into place. According to Ji Nuri, this was how you got her up.
"Hwaaah……"
Lee Sol stretched with a slow, languid motion. Huh. It actually worked. Her eyelids drifted shut, then opened again—still thoroughly half-asleep.
"……That's so weird."
Lee Sol looked at me and said something completely out of left field.
"What is?"
"What else? The fact that Shin Ayoung is hanging out with you."
Hadn't she been asleep? Apparently she'd been half-listening to our conversation while she dozed. You really couldn't let your guard down around her.
"Why is that weird?"
"I mean, I don't think I've ever seen her get close with a guy before."
"……I don't know about that. Doesn't she have plenty of friends?"
"That's other people going up to her first. She talks to you first."
Lee Sol propped her chin on the desk and looked at me. Her gaze was lazy, but a flicker of curiosity ran through it.
— "……Maybe her type is just ordinary guys?"
I silently rejected that thought. No, she probably just needed a gaming buddy.
"We're here."
"Oh, you're here?"
When I opened the club room door, the President and Senior Minji were moving around at a brisk clip—wiping down desks, sweeping the floor. The cleaning was stricter than usual.
"Something going on?"
"The first counseling requests of the year came in. Two of them today alone."
The President held out two white envelopes. The covers were labeled counseling application forms.
"I figured they'd show up soon, but this is pretty early."
I'd heard that the first counseling requests usually didn't arrive until after April. Compared to previous years, this was several weeks ahead of schedule. Had word started spreading among the students?
…Wait. This.
I looked at the numbers written on the envelopes and spoke to the President.
"Both of them are Level 2?"
"…What's a level?"
Lee Sol's face went blank. Right—come to think of it.
"We never explained that to you."
The first counseling session had started so quickly there hadn't been time.
"Counseling tends to involve a pretty specialized element, so…"
Senior Minji took over the explanation for me. Scribble, scribble—she wrote neatly across the whiteboard.
"Alright—like this."
Level 1. Light counseling.
Level 2. Heavy counseling.
Level 3. Professional counseling.
"We made the categories to figure out whether a case needs the counseling teacher, or whether we can handle it ourselves."
"Just know that we can basically handle up through Level 2."
Light counseling, or anything too awkward to take to a teacher, usually came to us. Sometimes a client still preferred to see the teacher, of course… but these forms had been passed straight to us. In other words, the clients found it too uncomfortable to talk to a teacher and wanted us to handle it.
"What kind of cases are they?"
"It's spring. This time of year, it's always the same."
So, romance counseling. Well, last year's romance cases had made us fairly well-known.
"Since it's the first session, you two take the lead. Sol can just watch from the side."
The President meant to leave this one with us. Honestly, there wasn't a better time for it. We had a new member in Lee Sol, and if she was going to learn, the sooner she jumped in the better.
"First, let's fill out the pledges."
Two sheets printed out of the machine. They were confidentiality pledges—promises not to leak anything from a counseling session. Without signing them, you weren't allowed to open the application forms in principle.
"Done?"
"Here."
I checked that Lee Sol had filled hers out properly. She managed this kind of thing without any trouble. Pledges signed, I pulled the counseling application out of the envelope. I wanted at least a look at the client's profile before they arrived.
"Let's see…"
…Huh?
Applicant:Kang Hansol
Class:Year 2, Class 3
Club:Band Club
The moment I read it, a strong wave of déjà vu hit me. …I'd definitely seen that name somewhere. The memory was fuzzy.
"Seungho, the client's going to be here soon."
"Ah—right."
At the President's words I checked the time and realized it was already that late. Better get ready for counseling first.
Knock, knock—
"Come in."
Rattle—
A guy with a fairly solid build stepped through the door. His name tag was blue—same year as me, a second-year. He looked around the room in a scattered, uneasy way. Most people who walked into the counseling room reacted like that. Counseling wasn't exactly a familiar experience.
…But wait.
That's the dog.
The guy Ji Nuri had spotted that morning and actively avoided. Looks like I'd gotten tangled up in something more annoying than expected.
"Sit wherever you're comfortable. Want something to drink?"
I swallowed my surprise and greeted him with as natural an expression as I could manage.
"Nah, I'm fine."
Client Kang Hansol wanted to skip the snacks and get through counseling as fast as possible. That suited me just fine, so I went straight to the point the way he wanted.
"First off, could you tell me exactly what's going on?"
I asked the question by the book. I already knew what was going on from reading Ji Nuri's thoughts… but as far as everyone else was concerned, I was supposed to have no idea.
"Haa……"
After a short silence, he opened his mouth.
"So…… there's someone I like in the same club, and I confessed to her a little while ago."
Right. This guy had confessed to Ji Nuri. That was one of the reasons she'd been dodging him since morning.
"Long story short… she shut me down on the spot."
"……Oho."
Lee Sol let out a tiny sound of interest. At some point she'd produced a snack and was chewing on it, already settled in as an audience for a romance story. When I shot her a look, she finally read the room.
"…Is this not how you do it?"
"……"
When I said nothing, Lee Sol covered her mouth with her hand.
"Got it. I'll keep quiet."
I turned back toward the client.
"…Can you keep going?"
"Uh… yeah."
He looked a little bewildered, but he kept talking.
"Honestly, getting rejected is whatever—I'm not planning to give up anyway…"
So he hadn't given up.
"The problem is, she said she's quitting the club now."
That part I hadn't known. The situation was getting even messier. Lee Sol's eyebrows jumped.
"…She's got a fiery personality, huh."
I gave Lee Sol's arm a light pinch.
"Ow…! Okay, okay, I really won't talk…!"
…Maybe recruiting her had been a mistake. Ji Nuri's concerns floated back into my mind unbidden.
"Ahem. Want to continue?"
"…Yeah."
Kang Hansol was impressive in his own way—he still managed to get his point out in a situation like this.
"……Anyway. I want to stop her from leaving the club somehow. I came because I was hoping there might be a good way to do that."
I wasn't so sure. Simply holding onto Ji Nuri wasn't going to fix this. The problem was far more tangled than Kang Hansol realized.
……
About ten minutes after Kang Hansol left, a second client arrived without anyone else noticing—second-year Band Club member Kim Sujin.
"There's someone I like in the same club… but I think he likes someone else."
She looked at us with desperate eyes.
"Isn't there any way?"
Kang Hansol liked Ji Nuri. Kim Sujin liked Kang Hansol. And Ji Nuri, unable to take it anymore, was trying to quit the club. …That was why it was complicated.
"……"
"……"
My eyes met Lee Sol's for a few seconds.
"……Don't tell me."
At Lee Sol's suspicion, I shut my mouth. She was way too quick on the uptake for her own good.
"……"
Maybe that silence was answer enough. A faint smile touched Lee Sol's lips, and she whispered in a voice only I could hear.
"The Counseling Club is hilarious."