(Romance) Counseling Club (2)
“Ta-da—!”
Minji sunbae stood in front of the mirror. Seated before her was our second client, Kim Sujin.
The reflection staring back was a completely different person from before. Fair, luminous skin paired with a soft flush of blush. Dark, defined lashes framed her eyes and stole every glance that landed on her.
“Wow… woooow…”
Even she couldn’t close her mouth properly, stunned by her own face.
Minji sunbae gave the mascara wand a casual twirl between her fingers and gave a smug little roll of her shoulders.
“Well? Totally different, right? Sujin, you’ve got a great canvas to start with. Just a few tweaks to the technique and the whole vibe flips.”
Before, the heavy makeup had made her look like a slightly awkward beauty. Now she was the complete opposite. Was this what people meant by “no-makeup makeup”?
They always said a woman’s transformation was free of charge—I just never realized it was an actual, achievable skill in real life.
“…This is kinda insane.”
Lee Sol had frozen in a dazed posture of her own, staring.
“How exactly did you do that?”
“I dabble in art a little, you know.”
So being good at art apparently made you good at makeup too.
“Thank you, unnie!”
Kim Sujin seized Minji sunbae’s hands and bounced in place.
“Have some confidence, Sujin. You’ve got this. Fighting!”
Minji sunbae sent her off with a final boost. Kim Sujin’s steps out of the counseling room carried a strange new swagger—the kind of energy that said she could charm anyone she wanted.
So this was the power of counseling… (physical).
“….”
Well, that was the last client out the door.
“Haaah…”
“Upsy-daisy…”
I let myself fall back against the sofa. At the exact same moment, Lee Sol flopped down across from me.
“…Finally over.”
It had been a while since our last session, and I was completely drained. How did we end up with something like this on day one? We never got a single easy day around here.
“Do you usually get a lot of counseling like this?”
Lee Sol, face still buried in the sofa cushions, turned her head to ask.
“Not really… is not something I can say, no.”
I started to claim we didn’t, then course-corrected. Thinking about it, we really did get more of these than the average counseling club. Maybe we needed a name change. To the (Romance) Counseling Club.
“Sol, that was your first session. How was it?”
Minji sunbae, who had been tidying the paperwork in the room, drifted over toward Lee Sol.
“Hmm…”
Lee Sol sank into thought for a moment, then the corner of her mouth curved up just a little.
“It was way more fun than I expected.”
“Really? That’s a relief~”
Minji sunbae let out a breath of pure relief.
“I was worried you might find it hard… Some kids struggle just sitting still and listening to people talk.”
“…Does that mean I have a talent for counseling?”
One compliment and she was already puffed up with pride. Minji sunbae watched her and let out a small laugh.
“You really might.”
They’d already gotten friendly. That was fast. I almost envied that kind of ease.
“So? What are you planning to do now?”
I tilted my head at Lee Sol’s question.
“…What do you mean, what am I planning?”
“I mean those guys. Is it fine just sending them off like that? Shouldn’t we do something more for them?”
The girl who lived permanently attached to the thought “this is annoying” was suddenly overflowing with motivation. Was it because it was a romance story? Lee Sol was still a girl, after all—she clearly liked that kind of thing.
…Though she seemed to be operating under a small misunderstanding.
“We’re a counseling club, not problem-solvers. Our job only goes as far as pointing them in a direction.”
“Huh? You’re not going to fix it?”
“…Why would that be our job? They have to handle it themselves.”
That was just how counseling worked. You offered a certain amount of help, then left them to do the rest on their own. If you thought of the client and counselor as a player and a coach in sports, it made sense. Just because a baseball player had a terrible throw didn’t mean the coach walked out to the mound and pitched for him.
“…Okay, yeah, that tracks.”
Lee Sol nodded as if she’d accepted it.
“So now we really just… do nothing?”
“Yeah. We already did everything we could.”
I laid out the plans we’d put together so far—three approaches tailored to what the clients actually wanted.
“First: give Kim Sujin advice so she can win over Kang Hansol. …Which we just finished.”
That was for our second client. If she successfully charmed Kang Hansol, the love-triangle problem would basically solve itself. Minji sunbae had handled this part—teaching her basic makeup and tips for attracting guys. The club president had always been pretty popular herself. She’d climbed to her current position by eliminating the competition around her; her techniques had solid credibility.
“For Kang Hansol, there are two directions.”
Simple enough.
“Either Kang Hansol persuades Ji Nuri to come back to the club, or he gives up on her.”
“At that point it really comes down to what Nuri decides, right?”
“Exactly.”
Her choice would change the whole situation, so advice didn’t mean much. In other words, we had already done pretty much everything we could. We’d listened to the clients, empathized, comforted them, and then set up the signposts so they could make the best choice themselves.
“From here on, all that’s left is to watch.”
Whatever results came out of it, we’d pick up counseling from there. Counseling never wrapped up in a single session anyway. For the time being, there was nothing more we could do. The best plan available was going home and sleeping with our legs stretched out.
Ah.
This is so goddamn miserable.
Shin Ayoung let out a silent sigh inside her head.
“Ayoung. For this part, I think it would be better if you went more emotionally intense—like this.”
Jeong Jaehun, the Drama Club senior, was flipping through the script and demonstrating the motions. While he was at it, he kept casually closing the distance, eyes sliding over her with practiced ease.
Look at that. This was not his first or second time trying this.
“….”
Shin Ayoung was on the verge of sighing out loud at the sight of him, but of course she couldn’t let it show.
“Ah~ I get what you mean.”
…Keep the smile on.
She gave a light, cooperative reply and stayed carefully passive.
“Okay, looking at the next scene…”
…This bastard. How long was he planning to keep this up?
She just wanted to spend the time practicing alone, but Jeong Jaehun refused to leave her alone. Normally the club president would have shown up around now and told him to cut it out. Right now, though, no one was stepping in.
…It’s gotten worse ever since the president got hospitalized.
She suddenly missed the old president. The senior who used to lead the club had been in a bad car accident and was stuck in the hospital. Thankfully nothing life-threatening, but she wouldn’t be back at school for a while. In her place, Jeong Jaehun—same third-year, and the loudest voice in the Drama Club—had taken over as temporary president. And ever since then, it had been like this.
I just want to quit…
If she’d known it would turn out this way, she would have joined a different club from the start.
…No, maybe it wouldn’t have been any different even in another club. There was nowhere inside the school that felt comfortable for Shin Ayoung.
…Although, recently, there was one person who had started to feel just a little bit easier to be around.
“…Sunbae. Don’t you need to check on the other members too?”
Please go bother someone else, the question said.
“Ah, the others…?”
Jeong Jaehun glanced briefly over his shoulder, then looked back at her with a light smile.
“Of course it’d be nice to look after them too… but the chemistry between the leads is the most important thing, right?”
“That’s… yes, you’re right.”
Ugh, forget it. No matter what she said, he wasn’t going to take the hint. Finishing practice as fast as possible and getting out of here was probably the best she could hope for.
…
It was finally over.
The second club time ended, Shin Ayoung was on her feet.
Ult, auto, W, Q, E, auto, ult, auto, ult.
Her head was packed full of Rule. She needed to get home and warm up her hands on the Hwalbaram map already.
“….”
…That was when it happened.
A shadow slid into her path and blocked her way—not completely, just enough that she couldn’t slip past without making it awkward. She lifted her gaze. Jeong Jaehun was standing there.
“Ayoung. We’re heading to karaoke with the others after this. Want to come?”
“….”
This again.
The other guys immediately piled on in agreement.
“Yeah, Ayoung, hang out with us.”
“We’ve never been to karaoke with Ayoung before.”
“You ditched last time saying you had homework. We’ve gotta take a break day once in a while.”
It was an awkward request from her side.
“Ah, well… I already have other plans today.”
Shin Ayoung offered a vague smile. The plans part was actually true.
“Other plans?”
Jeong Jaehun’s brow twitched slightly. Then, as if a great idea had just occurred to him, the corner of his mouth lifted.
“Then just invite that friend over here too.”
“What? No…”
“It’s fine. We’ll cover the money—just tell them to show up. If karaoke’s not their thing, we can go somewhere else.”
“…That’s…”
Shin Ayoung’s expression stiffened a little. She needed to refuse more firmly… but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. She was afraid of how people would rate her. Afraid it would eventually reach her parents.
“Weeell…”
…How was she supposed to turn this down?
Every time this happened, her heart gave a small, twisting squeeze. She could talk just fine on the inside. Getting the words out of her mouth was the hard part. Everything jammed up right below her throat.
“….”
…This was seriously driving her crazy.
Looking at herself like this always made her feel pathetic.
“…Then—”
Jeong Jaehun was about to deliver one last line while watching her struggle, when—
Bzzzt—! Bzzzt—!
Her phone vibrated hard inside her pants pocket.
Ah…!
The name that lit up the screen was Lee Seungho’s. Right—they’d exchanged numbers a little while ago.
She answered a little too quickly.
“Hello?”
His voice came through the speaker—neither high nor low, perfectly casual and unhurried.
“Hello? Are you done with club?”
“Yeah, just finished. You’re still there? If you’re busy right now—”
“No, I’m done too. I’ll come right now.”
She cut him off fast. Shin Ayoung was not about to let this chance slip away.
“Where are you?”
“Main gate, first floor.”
“I’ll head down right now.”
She hung up and let her brows droop into an apologetic look aimed at Jeong Jaehun.
“I’m sorry, sunbae. Something really important came up—I have to go first.”
She brushed past his startled face and made straight for the clubroom door, walking as fast as she could without running.
“Huh? Ayoung’s not coming?”
“She said she has plans.”
“With who? Some guy she’s seeing?”
“Nah, no way it’s that…”
The boys murmured among themselves as she left.
“Sorry. I’ll head in first.”
With that last line, Shin Ayoung shut the clubroom door behind her. Then she cut across the hallway at speed.
Crazyyyy! You pretty little thing~ Just you wait!
The corners of her mouth, now free to show, curled up in pure, blissful satisfaction.