Life, Once Again!

"The Montagues and the Capulets, two rival households in the city of Verona. A fated couple is born between them. That's right, it's the Romeo and Juliet that you all know. Romeo Montague, Juliet Capulet, and their tragic love that came from a misunderstanding. However, we don't like tragedies that much, so we decided to change it into something a bit different. And with that, let us call Romeo and Juliet to this very stage right now. We hope the next thirty minutes will be a fun time for everyone."

He slid his left leg backwards and took a bow. His right arm was on top of his bellybutton. He stayed in that position for about three seconds before raising his head again.

"I'll do that as an introduction. It will be boring if I do it for too long."

"Wow, you look really different, seonbae."

Aram applauded. Maru shrugged before sitting down. They had started practicing Romeo and Juliet, the adlib version thanks to Aram's suggestion. As they couldn't ad-lib everything from beginning to end, they decided to practice just the crucial parts of the play.

"I'll go out from time to time as the narrator. It's an ad-lib after all."

"Okay."

The director of this play naturally became Aram. Daemyung had stepped back as well. There was no strict practice since this was a play where they should enjoy themselves. They just prepared the play when they had time left over after practicing for the competition.

"We got permission. 1 hour in the hall. There's the applied music club's performance right after so we have to pull out quickly after we're done."

Taesik entered through the front door and handed out drinks as he spoke.

"What time?"

"From 12 to 1."

"That's lunchtime though."

"Other than that, there's no time available. If we do it in the school field, we might have more freedom, but that sounds a little difficult, doesn't it?"

"We can do the play wherever we like other than the hall, right?"

"No. The entrances of the buildings are for showcasing the prizes our school won over the years. I think the good places and good time slots are already taken by other clubs through a lottery."

Hearing that, Aram abruptly stood up.

"I didn't hear anything like that! What do you mean, a lottery?"

"The student council should have put up a notice before. On the noticeboard for the 2nd years."

Aram rushed out the back door. Her loud footsteps could be heard from the classroom. After a while, she came back with a depressed expression.

"I think it's already set in stone."

"Probably. Well then, what do we do? We did get permission to use the hall, but if you don't like the time slot, I guess we can't help it. I did have a hard time getting it, but lunchtime is no good after all, right?"

Taesik made a bitter smile. Since the acting club, which was an eyesore among teachers, wanted to use the hall, he must have received quite a few glares during the teachers' meeting. He left after saying that they should tell him once they came to a decision.

"If we do it at lunch, no one will come to see us."

"That's true."

After contemplating for a while, Aram spoke again.

"How about we do it on the school field?"

"The school field?"

Aram walked towards the window.

"The platform to the right of the school field. I think that's a good place. It's close to both the gym and the lab building. Also, we get school lunch on the day of the festival itself, right?"

"Probably."

"Then everyone has to walk past that place at least once, so that looks like the best location. You did something similar at the beginning of the semester when everyone was going to get their lunch."

Something similar. That referred to the event where Maru did a performance along with Daemyung and Bangjoo in order to attract new club members. Aram's words sounded plausible. Considering how the students would move about, that location was definitely one of the important spots. The problem was that other clubs would be aware of this as well.

"They said that the main building and the lab building will be taken by the clubs that have applied for permission, so what does that mean for the school field? Do you think it's first come first served on the day itself?"

Daemyung asked as he looked down on the school field. Maru was curious about this as well. Since it was a festival held by students, the student council should be the ones managing most of the things. Perhaps the school field was already planned out since there were plans for other places as well.

"I'll go ask."

Aram stood up this time as well. Today was Saturday, the 31st of July. As today was a half-day[1], there should still be some students at school. It was very likely that the student council was still here since it was only 3 in the afternoon.

"She's hard-working. I guess we should help her out a lot."

Daemyung made a smile of satisfaction. It seemed that he liked the fact that his juniors were enthusiastic about the club. Maru thought that Daemyung wouldn't be able to cheer for her that much if he knew what her true objective was. After all, the more effort Aram puts into this, the bigger the level of panic that Daemyung and Jiyoon would have to go through.

"Moderately. Everything is good when it's done moderately."

Maru tapped on Daemyung's shoulders. Daemyung looked confused. He would find out on the day of the festival itself.

"Seonbae!"

Aram came back and rushed in through the door. After panting for a while, she raised a fist in the air.

"We just have to win rock paper scissors!"

"Rock paper scissors?"

"Yes!"

After taking a deep breath, Aram explained the situation in detail.

"I went to the student council and asked, and they said that they're dividing up the school field into different regions and are receiving applications for each area. I told them that we want the platform on the right, but there seems to be 7 other teams that want that spot. That's why they decided they would hold a rock paper scissors match to decide who wins that spot," Aram spoke in a proud voice.

"So, who's going to do it?" Maru asked.

"For now, let's hold one amongst ourselves."

The club members gathered around. Then they held the first round of rock paper scissors. After a few repetitions, the winner was Jiyoon.

"I-I'm not good at this."

"But you won though. Today is your lucky day."

Aram grabbed Jiyoon's arm. Jiyoon shook her head and pulled her arm out.

"I just won because of coincidence. Let's try that again. Please?"

They had no choice but to do that again. This time, Daemyung won the overall match with rock.

"Uhm… I'm not really confident," Daemyung spoke bitterly as well.

As they were actors in need of a stage, this was a sensitive topic. It was giving pressure to everyone because this rock paper scissors was going to decide that.

"Does it have to be that spot?"

"Yes!"

Aram spoke without hesitation. Maru sighed.

"Then do a match with me."

"With you, seonbae?"

Maru looked into Aram's eyes as he prepared to do a match of rock paper scissors. No speech bubble appeared above Aram's head until the match finished.

"I won."

"Then this time…."

Maru looked at Aram once more as he spoke.

"I'm going to go with rock."

"Eh? Rock?"

"Yes."

They raised their hands above their heads like last time. Aram smiled as though she found something interesting before hiding her hand behind her waist. At that moment, a speech bubble appeared above her head.

-He said he's going with rock, but that means he's going with scissors, right? Then I'm going with rock!

Maru lowered his hand in the still-clenched position. What appeared from Aram's back was scissors. Aram twitched her eyebrows.

"Again."

"I'm going to go with rock this time as well."

"You're not fooling me this time."

Although she was saying that, her inner thoughts were clearly revealed in her head. Maru glanced at those speech bubbles and went with paper accordingly. Aram's jaw slacked since she went with rock.

"Next, Dowook."

"Why me?"

"I'm going to compare between different types of people."

He used the same method on Dowook. Although a speech bubble appeared the first time, it did not appear the second time. It was useless unless the opponent was specifically thinking something related to 'Han Maru'.

"Think about what you're doing before doing it."

"Alright."

He easily won the next two matches. Dowook looked at him suspiciously.

"I saw on TV that what the opponent is going with can be predicted from the movement of their hands."

"You can see that?"

"Somewhat."

He couldn't just rely on the speech bubbles so he prepared two methods. He was going to utilize his enhanced physical abilities as well. He would have to read the short moment before the opponent's hand reached out and change his hand accordingly. Of course, this was just in case the speech bubble didn't work. That was more of a gamble, so it shouldn't work all the time.

He had matches with all the other kids as well. His win rate was around 70%. Although the number of samples was low, it was quite a decent win rate. He had finished learning their patterns as well. If it was just a single match, he couldn't ensure that he would win the match. There were times when people just did the match without thinking which didn't allow him to play mind games with them. However, his win rate would increase if it was a best of three. The more opportunities he had to talk with the opponent, the more likely his chances of winning.

"So, when are they doing it?"

"At four. Oh, it's almost time."

Maru followed Aram to the student council room on the 2nd floor. The council room was half the size of an ordinary classroom and had quite a lot of people. On the chalkboard was written 'For a successful Woosung Festival'.

"The acting club?"

A male student suddenly asked.

"Yes."

"Then I guess you're all here. I'll explain things then. We're going to decide on your spots with rock paper scissors and there are eight options: the two side platforms on the school field, the main platform at the center of the school field, the spot between the main building and the school gates, right in front of the main building, in front of the lab building, and the back of the main building. There's nothing wrong with that, right?"

It seemed that he was the student council president. Maru nodded his head. The others did the same.

"We'll allocate the spots, but the festival begins at 9 in the morning and ends at 5 in the afternoon, so I hope you can give your place up to others that want the spot after your event is over. Not that you have to. Well then, it's time for rock paper scissors."

"It's best of three matches, right?" Maru sneakily asked.

"Well, it's up to you."

The other students didn't seem to have anything wrong with that either.

Maru looked at the girl in front of him. She was his opponent. He did feel a bit sorry though, since he was about to con her.

"Shall… we?"

She asked in a polite voice as she seemed to be a first year student. Maru nodded his head. The girl clasped her hands together and stared at it before leaning forward. It seemed she was ready.

"Uhm, you know?"

"Yes?"

"I'm going to go with scissors."

"...Okay."

Maru smiled.

* * *

"Anyone?"

She looked at the homeroom teacher who sighed as he looked for applicants. The school festival was next week. Just like last year, the class talent show was the problem. They had to create at least two teams per class. This 'compulsory' competition very much went against the 'free' festival.

"Anyone wanna sing up there? Let's just get things done quickly and go home already."

There was a reason why the afternoon homeroom wasn't ending. No one wanted to go to the talent show. Last year, her classroom had a problem because there were too many participants, but this year, all the students in class were calm and composed and disliked doing such things. She was the same.

She looked outside the window. A truck full of audio devices ran across the school field towards the hall. It seemed that the school was planning to decorate the stage like last year.

"If there's no one, we'll go with a lottery."

It came down to this. She sighed slightly. As the regional preliminaries were coming up, the acting club was practicing every day late into the night. She had no time to prepare anything else. She had to beg her president for the drama background role as well.

The class president, who sat at the very front, ripped off a piece of paper from a notebook and made enough pieces for each of the students. After that, the homeroom teacher said that they'll pick 8 people and create two teams. He also said that it was up to the teams to decide what they wanted to do, whether it was singing, a performance, or a dance.

"Numbers 4, 7, 32, 23, 8, 16, 11, and 30. That's that then."

She held her number and sighed. Number 23 was her number. After telling the students to clean up the class well, the homeroom ended. At the same time, the 8 people whose numbers were called out were called once again. Everyone looked gloomy.

"I really don't want to do this."

"Me too."

"This is horrible. We're going to have to do this on the main stage in the hall like last year right? Wow, that drives me crazy."

"I hate that homeroom teacher."

Although they were complaining, they had no choice but to do it. The teacher was telling them to do it, so they didn't have any choice.

"What should we do?" She asked.

None of the other classmates answered. It was almost time for her to go to practice. She couldn't stay still forever.

"Anyone here can sing?"

No one raised their hand.

"How about dancing?"

It was still quiet.

She put her head against the desk. This kind of festival was the worst.

At that moment,

"Why does it feel like a funeral here?"

A voice tickled her ears. It was the voice of someone who she knew well. She raised her head. Chaerim was outside the classroom, waving her hand.

"Chaerim-seonbae."

"So you were in this class. Aren't you going to practice?"

"Eh? Ah, the thing is…."

She couldn't say anything because she didn't know how to explain. Meanwhile, the others around her exclaimed after seeing her.

"Noona, I'm a fan of yours."

"Unni, me too!"

Although Chaerim went to the same school as them, opportunities to meet her were very rare. She could understand why her classmates were so ecstatic.

"Thanks. But what's going on here? You guys don't look good," Chaerim asked with a smile.

She sighed in relief. The master of singing and dancing was right in front of her. Asking for her opinion was a good idea.

"Uhm, seonbae."

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever gone to talent shows or something?"

"Talent shows?"

Chaerim approached them with an interested face.

[1] Students went to school on Saturdays as well around this time, and every two weeks, they would have a half-day for Saturday classes. This no longer exists now.