Kang Su-yeon walked faster than Yeon-ju expected.
A few steps behind her, Yeon-ju followed and adjusted her bag strap for no particular reason.
“Senior.”
“Yeah?”
“Is the club room far?”
“Not really.”
“But we’ve been walking for a while.”
“College students walk a lot.”
“That doesn’t really answer my question.”
Su-yeon turned around.
And smiled.
“You’re already talking pretty well.”
“...When was I not?”
“If this had been yesterday, I think you would’ve just followed along quietly.”
Yeon-ju didn’t answer.
It wasn’t wrong.
She had been talking about her ex-boyfriend to someone she’d never met until a moment ago, yet hearing Su-yeon point it out made her feel a little embarrassed.
Su-yeon turned forward again and kept walking.
“We’re almost there.”
This time, she really meant it.
After circling around the student union building to the back, they came upon an old building.
It didn’t have the clean, orderly feel of the main building or the library.
Old posters from various clubs were plastered over one another on the walls, and on one side of the glass door, a performance flyer of uncertain age hung half torn off.
“This is it?”
“Yeah.”
“Are all the club rooms here?”
“Only some of them. The popular, bigger ones get better spaces.”
“Then this place is...”
“Unpopular and small.”
She said it so proudly that Yeon-ju couldn’t bring herself to ask anything else.
Su-yeon climbed the stairs like she knew them by heart.
They passed through the second-floor hallway, then climbed another narrow flight of stairs.
The very end of the third floor.
At the far end of a hallway with barely any windows was a single door.
A small piece of paper was taped to it.
ILY
Beneath it, someone had handwritten a sentence.
I LOVE YOU
And underneath that, in slightly smaller letters:
Counseling welcome. Club closure not.
Yeon-ju stared at the sentence for a while.
“...Who wrote that?”
“Me.”
“Of course.”
“Why are you already convinced?”
Su-yeon opened the door.
Yeon-ju paused the moment she stepped inside.
The club room was more ordinary than she’d expected.
More precisely, there were traces of an effort to make it ordinary.
A large whiteboard hung on one wall, with several small sticky notes posted beside it.
In the middle of the room were four mismatched chairs and an old table.
There was a small couch by the window, one side of which had sagged a little.
Psychology books, novels, magazines, and career-related books were crammed haphazardly onto the bookshelf, while boxes of instant noodles and paper cups were stacked in a corner.
Yeon-ju slowly looked around the room.
‘It’s more...’
It wasn’t weird.
The moment she had that thought, the whiteboard caught her eye.
Written in large letters at the very top was:
This Month’s Goal: Don’t Get Shut Down
Below it, tiny writing filled the board.
Fill activity requirements Organize counseling records Student Support Office report At least one new club member Don’t get caught by Assistant Kang Ji-su
The last sentence had been crossed out twice.
Yeon-ju quietly looked at Su-yeon.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Say it.”
“I thought this place was more normal than expected, but I’m taking that back.”
Su-yeon laughed.
Just then, the sound of pages turning came from the back of the room.
Only then did Yeon-ju realize someone else was there.
A woman sat at the end of the desk.
Her straight hair fell to about her shoulders.
She wore a neatly arranged shirt and skirt.
Even though Yeon-ju had never seen her before, her face was strikingly beautiful.
The woman had been looking at her open laptop, but slowly raised her head.
“Is she a freshman?”
“Yeah.”
Su-yeon answered for her.
Yeon-ju immediately turned to look at her.
“I never said I was joining.”
“If you made it all the way into the club room, you’re halfway there.”
“What kind of rule is that?”
“I just made it.”
The woman sitting at the desk let out a quiet sigh.
“Senior, stop doing that or they’ll run away.”
“She doesn’t look like she’ll run.”
“Why not?”
When Yeon-ju asked, Su-yeon answered without a care.
“She’s already sitting down.”
Yeon-ju looked down.
Without realizing it, she had sat in the chair beside the door.
She considered getting up right away, but that somehow seemed even weirder.
The woman closed her laptop.
“I’m Jo Hyun-a. Second-year Korean literature major.”
“Oh, hi. I’m Lee Yeon-ju. First-year business administration major.”
“I know.”
“You do?”
Hyun-a looked at Su-yeon.
“Senior posted in the group chat on the way here.”
Yeon-ju looked at Su-yeon too.
“My name?”
“Just your name.”
“Without my permission?”
“I had to tell the club members a freshman was coming.”
“I’m not a new club member yet.”
“You’re thorough.”
Su-yeon showed no remorse whatsoever.
Hyun-a pushed a chair toward her like she was used to this.
“Sit down for now. You only need to listen to about half of what she says.”
“Half?”
“You could start with a third.”
Su-yeon looked offended.
“Do I really have that little credibility?”
Hyun-a thought about it for a moment.
“You’re trustworthy.”
“See?”
“You’re just impossible to predict.”
Yeon-ju laughed without meaning to.
Su-yeon raised an eyebrow.
“What are you laughing at?”
“Nothing. You two just seem close.”
“We are.”
Su-yeon said it as though it were obvious.
Hyun-a answered a little differently.
“We’ve known each other a long time.”
There was a subtle difference in temperature between their answers.
Still, Hyun-a didn’t seem to actually dislike Su-yeon.
If anything, she seemed like someone who spoke that way because she was too used to her.
Su-yeon opened the refrigerator.
Inside were a few bottles of water, canned drinks, and some leftover chocolate.
“What do you want to drink?”
“I’m okay.”
“Then water.”
“I said I’m okay.”
“If we don’t give our freshman guest anything, Hyun-a will complain.”
Hyun-a looked up.
“When have I ever done that?”
“From now on.”
“...Then I’ll start now. Clean out the refrigerator.”
Su-yeon set a bottle of water in front of Yeon-ju.
Yeon-ju accepted it reflexively.
“Thank you.”
“So.”
Hyun-a asked Yeon-ju,
“Did she explain the club to you?”
“She said it’s a club that helps people with romance.”
“That’s all?”
“She also said it was about to be shut down.”
Hyun-a looked at Su-yeon for a moment.
“Why did you tell her that already?”
“It’s important.”
“Don’t people usually start with the advantages when recruiting?”
“You shouldn’t lie.”
That surprised Yeon-ju a little.
Su-yeon seemed like the kind of person who would find every possible loophole in the rules, but she was strangely honest about certain things.
Hyun-a tapped the table lightly twice with her finger.
“Well, she’s not wrong.”
“Could it really disappear?”
When Yeon-ju asked, Su-yeon answered immediately.
“It could.”
“Then why are you so relaxed?”
“It hasn’t disappeared yet.”
Yeon-ju was silent for a moment.
When you looked at it that way, she had a point.
Annoyingly so.
Hyun-a continued the explanation in Su-yeon’s place.
“It’s an ambiguous club from the school’s perspective.”
“Ambiguous?”
“It’s not an academic club or a volunteer club, but the purpose of our activities is too specific to call it a social club.”
“Helping people with romance?”
“Yes.”
“Then how did you get approved in the first place?”
Hyun-a looked at Su-yeon.
Su-yeon subtly looked away.
“That’s a long story.”
“So you did something.”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I feel like I already know, even though we just met.”
Hyun-a smiled faintly.
Su-yeon took a canned drink from the refrigerator and said,
“Anyway, we do our activities properly.”
“How?”
“Get a consultation.”
“Okay.”
“Report the situation.”
“Okay.”
“Think of a solution.”
“Okay.”
“Help them.”
Yeon-ju waited.
There seemed like there should be more.
But Su-yeon opened the can.
Pssht.
“That’s it?”
“Yep.”
“That’s way too vague.”
“You’ll understand the details once you actually do it.”
Hyun-a added from beside her,
“Her explanation was severely abbreviated, but she’s basically right.”
Hyun-a opened a file that had been sitting on the table.
Inside were counseling records organized by date.
Most of the names were blacked out, replaced with numbers or nicknames.
Yeon-ju naturally lowered her gaze.
Date of consultation.
Request.
Current relationship.
Goal.
Process.
Result.
The categories were divided, but the way they were filled out varied wildly.
Some pages were neat, while others had notes stuck all over them.
One page had so many arrows that it was hard to tell where they started or ended.
Yeon-ju tilted her head without thinking.
Su-yeon reacted immediately.
“What?”
“Nothing. I was just wondering if this part came first.”
Yeon-ju pointed to a section of the paper.
A note labeled ‘Check the other person’s reaction’ had been placed later in the process, but the section directly below it was already written on the assumption that the other person had reacted.
“I think the order might be switched here.”
Hyun-a pulled the file toward herself.
After reading it for a moment, she nodded.
“You’re right.”
Su-yeon came over and looked down at it too.
“She’s right.”
Yeon-ju quickly pulled her hand away.
“I could be wrong, though...”
“No, you’re right.”
Hyun-a said,
“She sometimes ends up like this when she writes things down while counseling.”
“That’s because I write everything on the spot.”
“And that’s why I go over it again later.”
Yeon-ju looked at the file one more time.
The content itself wasn’t difficult.
It was just hard to read because the order was mixed up and the notes were formatted differently.
‘This would be easier to follow in a table.’
The thought occurred to her, but she didn’t say it.
She wasn’t even part of the club yet.
Su-yeon watched her for a moment, then smiled.
“You like this kind of thing?”
“Like what?”
“Organizing things.”
“It’s not that I like it... I just don’t like things being confusing.”
“Oh.”
There was something odd about Su-yeon’s reaction.
Yeon-ju grew uneasy.
“Why?”
“Nothing.”
“You look like there’s something.”
“There isn’t.”
Hyun-a watched Su-yeon, then said to Yeon-ju,
“Be careful when she makes that face.”
“What kind of face?”
“That’s the face she makes when she finds someone she can put to work.”
“Hey.”
Yeon-ju completely withdrew her hand from the file.
“I haven’t joined yet.”
“Exactly.”
Su-yeon chimed in.
“You can join.”
She said it so naturally that Yeon-ju almost answered.
Instead, she kept her mouth shut.
Su-yeon laughed and dropped into an empty chair.
“What? You don’t want to?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to...”
Yeon-ju looked around the room once.
The old couch.
The mismatched chairs.
The whiteboard with ‘Don’t Get Shut Down’ written as this month’s goal.
The disorganized counseling records.
And the strange club president she had met for the second time today, who had already made her feel a little more comfortable being herself.
Hyun-a, who had calmly offered her a chair the first time they met.
It was a strange place.
And yet, strangely, she didn’t feel uncomfortable.
If anything, she was a little curious.
What exactly happened here?
What was it really like to help people with their romantic relationships?
“But what would I have to do if I joined?”
Yeon-ju asked.
Su-yeon and Hyun-a looked at her at the same time.
Yeon-ju realized belatedly what she had just said.
“I mean, I’m not saying I’m joining.”
The corners of Su-yeon’s mouth lifted.
“Sure. You’re just looking around.”
“...Why are you smiling like that?”
“Nothing.”
Hyun-a was smiling faintly too.
Yeon-ju fidgeted with the water bottle for no reason.
Su-yeon opened a desk drawer.
Then she took out a sheet of paper.
It was a club membership application.
“Here.”
“Why are you giving me that already?”
“Just read it.”
“Senior.”
“What?”
“I really only came to look around.”
Su-yeon nodded.
“I know.”
And held out a pen along with it.
“If you feel like writing while you read it, go ahead.”
Yeon-ju looked back and forth between the pen and the application.
Hyun-a said from beside her,
“You don’t have to join by force.”
Only then did Yeon-ju feel a little relieved.
“But...”
Hyun-a continued.
“If you do join, it’s more fun than you’d expect.”
Yeon-ju looked at Hyun-a.
Hyun-a’s expression was calm.
She didn’t draw people in the way Su-yeon did.
That made her feel a little more trustworthy instead.
“Why did you join, Hyun-a?”
Hyun-a blinked once.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
Hyun-a glanced at Su-yeon.
Su-yeon was drinking her canned beverage with an utterly unconcerned expression.
“At first, it just looked fun.”
“This?”
“Yes.”
Hyun-a smiled.
“I thought it was weird too, back then.”
“What about now?”
Hyun-a thought for a moment.
“It’s still weird.”
Su-yeon looked up.
“Hey.”
“But it is fun.”
Yeon-ju looked down at the application again.
Name.
Department.
Student ID number.
Contact information.
Reason for joining.
Her gaze stopped at the last field.
Reason for joining.
Yeon-ju picked up the pen.
Then stopped again.
It wasn’t because she thought it would help with finding a job.
It wasn’t related to her business administration major.
She hadn’t been interested in romantic counseling from the start, either.
Then why had she followed Su-yeon all the way here?
Yeon-ju thought for a moment.
Then raised her head and looked at Su-yeon.
While Hyun-a turned her laptop screen back on, Su-yeon was sneaking a piece of chocolate.
Without even looking at the screen, Hyun-a said,
“Senior. That’s mine.”
Su-yeon’s hand stopped.
“Your name isn’t on it.”
“You saw me buy it yesterday.”
“Got any proof?”
“Put it down.”
Su-yeon put the chocolate back.
Yeon-ju laughed without meaning to.
What a strange person.
What a strange club.
And yet...
It seemed like this place might be a little fun.
She had thought that she wanted to change somehow after coming to college.
Maybe she didn’t need to become an entirely different person in some grand way.
Maybe she could start by doing one thing she normally wouldn’t have done.
Yeon-ju wrote a short answer in the reason-for-joining field.
Because it seemed like it would be fun.
Then she slid the application toward Su-yeon.
Su-yeon looked down at it.
“Oh.”
“Why?”
“You really wrote it.”
Yeon-ju’s eyebrow twitched.
“You told me to.”
“Still, I didn’t think you’d write it this fast.”
“...Give it back.”
“Already submitted.”
Su-yeon swiftly pulled the application toward herself.
Yeon-ju reached for it, but she was too late.
“Kang Su-yeon.”
“Yes, Lee Yeon-ju, new club member.”
“I can still change my mind, you know.”
“Quitting on your first day doesn’t look good on your record.”
“What record?”
“Your ILY record.”
“What would that even be useful for?”
Su-yeon thought about it for a moment.
“...Romance?”
Hyun-a sighed.
Yeon-ju pressed her lips together, but eventually burst out laughing.
She must have joined the wrong place.
But strangely,
she didn’t want to leave right away.
The next morning.
Yeon-ju was opening her laptop in the very back of a business administration lecture hall.
The professor was explaining this semester’s team project at the front.
“Form your teams before the midterm evaluation, choose a company, and conduct a market analysis.”
Small groans rose from all around the lecture hall.
Yeon-ju groaned internally along with them.
‘Already a team project...’
College was more practical than she’d expected.
The classmate beside her leaned down and whispered,
“Yeon-ju, want to be on the same team?”
“Sure. Sounds good.”
After answering, Yeon-ju glanced at one side of her screen.
A notification from a new group chat had appeared overnight.
ILY
There were only three members.
Kang Su-yeon.
Jo Hyun-a.
Lee Yeon-ju.
Yeon-ju stared at the screen for a moment, then turned off the notification.
The professor was still explaining the project.
She needed to focus on class right now.
But when she looked at her laptop screen again, she found herself smiling a little.
It had only been a few days since she entered college.
Not much had changed yet.
Her classes were difficult.
She already had a team project.
And she didn’t know many people well.
But one thing that hadn’t existed until yesterday had appeared.
One slightly strange club.
And her name was in it too.