Episode 1
I thought something would change when I entered college.
At least, that was what Lee Yeon-ju thought.
She would wear regular clothes instead of a school uniform, move between buildings according to her class schedule instead of staying in an assigned classroom, and go to class on her own even when no bell rang.
It was definitely different from high school.
But a few days after actually starting college, Yeon-ju realized something sooner than expected.
Becoming a college student didn't suddenly turn you into a different person.
“Do I need to join at least one club...?”
Yeon-ju murmured under her breath as she stared at the freestanding sign set up in front of the student union building.
The campus was packed with people for the new semester.
Tables from all kinds of clubs were lined up across the central quad, and every time a freshman walked past, an upperclassman would stop them.
“You're a freshman, right? Interested in joining a band?”
“Have you ever thought about volunteer work?”
“Do you like basketball?”
“You like taking pictures, right?”
That last question felt a little unfair.
She wasn't even holding a camera, so what exactly had made them think she liked photography?
“I'm sorry.”
Yeon-ju dipped her head once more and hurried away as if she were escaping.
There wasn't a club she wanted to join yet.
In the first place, she hadn't felt like she absolutely had to do anything.
A few major classmates she'd gotten friendly with were already tossing around the names of clubs they were interested in.
A club that would help them prepare for a competition.
A club where they could build experience to use when applying for jobs.
An athletic club.
Even a mysterious social club for people who liked to drink.
Yeon-ju wasn't particularly drawn to any of them.
She had chosen business administration not because she had some grand dream, but because it seemed like the safest major and the one most likely to suit her.
Her grades had always been somewhere around the middle.
Her personality was ordinary, too, if ordinary was the right word.
A little quiet, a little timid, and not very good at stepping forward first in front of other people.
She'd thought that even that part of her might change a little once she entered college.
But so far, the only things that had changed were the transit card she used and her bag.
Yeon-ju let out a small sigh.
“I'll take my time.”
It wasn't like anyone was chasing her.
With that thought, she left the crowded central quad.
Once she turned onto a less crowded path, she could breathe a little easier.
The spring sunlight was warmer than she'd expected.
As she walked along the path between the school buildings, Yeon-ju spotted a bench beneath a tree.
And stopped.
Someone was lying there.
More precisely, a female student had taken up the entire bench and was stretched out across it.
Her long hair spilled carelessly over the end of the bench, and she wore a T-shirt and jeans with a college jacket that looked well worn thrown over them.
The problem was her face.
A large recruitment board was resting on top of it.
It seemed to be blocking the sunlight.
Without thinking, Yeon-ju read the words written on the board.
ILY
Below that, in slightly smaller letters, was:
I LOVE YOU
And finally:
New Members Wanted
Yeon-ju looked back and forth between the board and the person lying beneath it.
It did seem like she was recruiting people.
But the person doing the recruiting was asleep.
With the recruitment sign covering her face, no less.
‘What kind of club is this?’
I Love You.
Judging by the name alone, it did seem like a club related to love.
Yeon-ju took a step or two closer, then stopped.
A very steady breathing sound came from beneath the board.
She was really asleep.
Just then, the wind picked up.
One side of the board fluttered.
The female student raised a hand and pressed the board down firmly.
She didn't even wake up.
Yeon-ju quietly backed away.
‘What a strange person.’
Then she looked at the board one more time.
‘What a strange club.’
She didn't think there was any reason to look into it.
Yeon-ju simply walked past the bench.
The next day.
Yeon-ju found herself near the same place again.
It wasn't like she'd come because she was curious about the strange club from the day before.
There was still plenty of time before her afternoon class, and the central quad was noisy with club recruitment again today.
She'd only thought of the walking path she'd passed yesterday while looking for somewhere quiet to sit.
As it happened, the bench was empty.
Yeon-ju sat down and set her bag beside her.
The sunlight was warm, and the breeze was cool.
It was nice weather for sitting around.
She took out her phone.
After checking her messages once, she opened her photo gallery for no particular reason.
A few recent photos went by.
A picture with her parents on the day of the entrance ceremony.
The first lunch she'd eaten with her major classmates.
A screenshot of her class schedule.
A photo of one of the school buildings.
Then her finger stopped.
One photo.
She and a male student stood side by side in their high school uniforms.
Yeon-ju stared at the screen for a moment.
A boy she'd dated briefly during her senior year of high school, while she was preparing for the college entrance exams.
It wasn't as if they'd been together for very long.
And it was a little hard to call it a relationship in which they'd been passionately in love.
They'd met at the same cram school, started texting, and then began dating.
A few months later, they'd broken up.
He had been the one to say they should stop seeing each other.
At the time, she was so distracted by the college entrance exams that she'd taken it more calmly than expected.
But after entering college and finally having a little breathing room, she found herself thinking about him from time to time instead.
Yeon-ju quietly studied her own face in the photo.
She had been smiling back then, too.
A little awkwardly.
‘Was I too boring?’
She hadn't been good at texting first, either.
She'd hardly ever been the one to suggest meeting up first.
Whenever he'd asked where she wanted to go, she'd usually answered that anywhere was fine.
She'd never been the first to say she liked him, either.
Back then, she'd thought that was simply her personality.
But after they broke up, she sometimes wondered if there was another way to look at it.
If she'd been just a little more proactive.
If she'd expressed herself just a little more.
Would the outcome have been different?
Yeon-ju lightly bit her lip.
She'd wanted to change after entering college.
To make friends more easily.
To say what she wanted to say first.
And if she came to like someone, to find a little more courage then.
But even now, several days after starting college, not much had changed.
“Your boyfriend?”
Yeon-ju's shoulders jerked.
Someone was standing behind her. She had no idea how long they'd been there.
She whipped her head around.
Long hair.
A worn college jacket.
The person who had been sleeping on the bench yesterday with a recruitment board over her face.
Yeon-ju reflexively turned off her phone screen.
“Ah, no.”
“If he isn't, why are you so startled?”
The female student laughed.
Then she sat down beside Yeon-ju as naturally as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world.
“Sorry. I wasn't trying to peek, but the picture was right there.”
“It's okay.”
“But he isn't your boyfriend?”
Yeon-ju hesitated for a moment.
There was no need to tell a stranger.
And yet, strangely, she didn't feel like she couldn't say it.
Maybe it was because of the way she'd seen this girl sleeping with a board over her face yesterday. Or maybe it was because she was talking to Yeon-ju so casually now.
“...He's my ex-boyfriend.”
“Oh.”
The female student nodded.
And that was it.
Yeon-ju had expected her to immediately ask why they'd broken up, but she didn't.
Instead, she leaned forward slightly and said,
“Pictures like that can be kind of hard to delete sometimes.”
Yeon-ju looked at her, a little surprised.
“Yeah.”
“You don't want to look at them, but you don't really want to keep looking at them, either.”
“...Right.”
Exactly.
Yeon-ju looked down at her dark phone screen again.
Then, without realizing it, she added,
“I'm kind of... timid.”
The girl beside her didn't rush her.
So Yeon-ju continued.
“I'm not good at texting first, and I'm not good at asking someone to meet up, either. Even back then, he was the one who did it most of the time.”
“Yeah.”
“So sometimes I wonder if we wouldn't have broken up if I'd been a little more proactive.”
After finishing, she felt embarrassed for no reason.
What was she even saying to someone she'd just met?
Yeon-ju lowered her gaze.
But the response from beside her came far too quickly.
“You were too good for him.”
Yeon-ju looked up.
“Excuse me?”
“I said you were too good for him.”
The female student didn't hesitate for even a second.
“If things really ended just because you're timid, then he was narrow-minded.”
“He didn't exactly say that was the reason.”
“Then you don't even know if it was because of your personality.”
“I guess not, but...”
“So don't blame yourself for everything.”
Yeon-ju fell silent.
As if it were nothing, the female student stretched her legs out in front of her.
“And you came to college.”
“Yeah.”
“There are tons of people here.”
“...There are.”
“And lots of guys.”
Yeon-ju eventually let out a small laugh.
“Is that what you meant?”
“It's important.”
The female student laughed, too.
“You can meet someone better. Or you don't have to date anyone for a while. Just think of one breakup as experience.”
It wasn't anything special.
It was the kind of thing a friend might have said without it being strange.
And yet, for some reason, Yeon-ju found it comforting.
Maybe because the other girl said it so matter-of-factly.
As if the very fact that Yeon-ju considered her personality a flaw was what seemed strange.
The female student added,
“If there was some other reason, you can think about that later.”
“Okay.”
“Anyway, don't think one relationship ending means there's something wrong with your personality.”
Yeon-ju couldn't answer for a moment.
The wind blew.
The leaves rustled, and the sound of students laughing drifted over from far away.
Until yesterday, Yeon-ju had thought the relationship ended because she herself had been lacking.
But with just a few offhand words from a complete stranger, that belief had wavered ever so slightly.
Maybe it really hadn't been entirely her fault.
At the very least, maybe there was nothing wrong with her personality itself.
“...Thank you,”
Yeon-ju said.
The female student's eyes went round before she smiled.
“For what?”
She looked as if she genuinely had no idea what she'd done.
Yeon-ju found that a little funny.
Then she suddenly remembered.
Yesterday.
Right here.
The board over her face.
“Hey.”
“Yeah?”
“You were here yesterday, right?”
“Me?”
“You were sleeping on the bench...”
“Oh.”
The female student clapped once.
“You saw me.”
“Yeah.”
“That's embarrassing.”
Her face didn't look embarrassed in the slightest.
After a moment's hesitation, Yeon-ju asked,
“The thing you had over your face.”
“Yeah.”
“It said you were recruiting for a club.”
“Our club.”
“ILY?”
“Oh, you remember.”
Even if she'd wanted to forget, it would have been hard to. The words I LOVE YOU had been plastered right over her face.
The female student smiled.
“Interested?”
“...What kind of club is it?”
As if she'd been waiting for that question, the female student turned her body toward Yeon-ju.
“A club that helps people with dating.”
Yeon-ju didn't say anything for a moment.
“...What?”
“Dating.”
“I heard that part.”
“You know how there are people who like someone but can't tell them? Or people who don't know how to confess? Or two people who seem to like each other but absolutely refuse to make the first move?”
The female student folded down her fingers one by one.
“We help with things like that.”
“That's... a club?”
“Yep.”
“Does the school allow that?”
The female student fell silent for a moment.
Yeon-ju sensed something ominous in the silence.
“...It used to.”
“That's past tense.”
“Good catch.”
The female student flashed a grin.
“We're on the verge of being shut down.”
Yeon-ju stared at her blankly.
A club that helped people with dating.
On the verge of being shut down.
And its president had been sleeping on a bench yesterday with the recruitment sign covering her face.
Each detail was strange enough on its own, but putting them together made it even stranger.
The female student held out her hand.
“Oh, right. We never exchanged names.”
Yeon-ju looked at the offered hand for a moment before carefully taking it.
“I'm Lee Yeon-ju. I'm a freshman in business administration.”
“Kang Su-yeon. I'm a junior psychology major.”
As they let go of each other's hands, Su-yeon added,
“And I'm the president of ILY, also known as Il-li.”
Yeon-ju thought for a moment.
Just as she'd thought.
The president of a strange club was a strange person.
And yet.
For some reason, she was a little curious.
“Where's the clubroom?”
The corners of Su-yeon's mouth slowly lifted.
“I thought you weren't interested.”
“I never said I wasn't interested.”
“Fair point.”
Su-yeon stood up.
Then she shoved both hands into the pockets of her worn college jacket and said,
“Then want to come take a look?”
Yeon-ju looked up at her.
She probably would have refused if this had been yesterday.
But today was a little different.
Coming to college didn't suddenly turn a person into someone else.
Still.
Maybe she could at least follow a slightly strange person around.
Yeon-ju picked up her bag and stood.
“...I'll just take a look.”
“Everyone says that at first.”
“That sounds really suspicious.”
Su-yeon only smiled in response.
Then she started walking ahead.
Yeon-ju watched her from behind for a moment before following.
Without really knowing where they were going.
Still, strangely enough,
her steps felt a little lighter than before.
Episode 1: The Strange President of a Strange Club End.