Joining ILY hadn't suddenly changed Yeon-ju's college life.
She went to class in the morning.
At lunch, she went to the student cafeteria with her major classmates.
During her free period, she worked on assignments for a while, then checked her phone.
The professor had uploaded a mountain of reading from the very first week.
Yeon-ju realized it after two days.
The idea that college was supposed to be free was only half true.
She was free to do her assignments.
Free to work on team projects.
Free to run to her next class.
“Is this what freedom is...?”
Yeon-ju muttered under her breath as she walked down the steps of the Business Administration Building.
She was holding the handouts she'd received in class a little while ago.
They were packed with words like market analysis and consumer behavior.
The major classmate walking beside her laughed.
“Why are you already tired?”
“It hasn't even been that long since the semester started, but there's already so much to read.”
“That's not something someone who chose business administration should be saying.”
“No one told me any of this when I was in high school.”
“Everyone hides it. They need freshmen to come in.”
Yeon-ju nodded seriously.
“Sounds plausible.”
Her classmate laughed.
“Are you going to that club today too?”
“Yeah.”
After answering, Yeon-ju paused, realizing she'd sounded pretty natural.
That club.
She'd only joined a few days ago, but it already felt strange to call it that.
Her classmate asked without giving it much thought, “What kind of club was it again?”
“ILY.”
“Oh, that's a pretty name.”
Yeon-ju thought about it for a moment.
Going by the name alone, it was.
“Yeah. The name is.”
“The name is?”
“Never mind.”
There was no need to mention that it was on the verge of being shut down.
Yeon-ju parted ways with her classmate in front of the building.
She had about two hours until her next class.
Normally, she would have gone to the library or spent time at a café, but today she had somewhere else to go.
The club room.
When she opened the door, no one was inside.
Yeon-ju stepped in and closed the door behind her.
“Hello...”
Naturally, no one answered.
She'd greeted an empty room for no reason.
Yeon-ju set down her bag and looked around.
It wasn't much different from the first time she'd come a few days ago.
One side of the couch was still sunken in.
A bag of snacks sat on top of the refrigerator, though no one knew who had eaten them.
And the whiteboard still read, in big letters:
This Month's Goal: Don't Get Shut Down
A new line had appeared underneath in smaller letters.
New Club Member +1 Achieved
There was even a circle drawn beside it.
Yeon-ju snickered when she saw it.
‘That must be Su-yeon.’
A consultation file lay on the desk near the whiteboard.
It was the one she'd seen a few days ago.
Yeon-ju hesitated, then sat down.
Now that she'd joined, was it okay for her to look through it?
Su-yeon hadn't given her any particular explanation.
Hyun-ah hadn't either.
All Yeon-ju remembered was Hyun-ah saying, ‘You learn the details by actually doing it.’
Yeon-ju opened the file.
The first page.
The second page.
The third page.
Looking at it more closely than she had a few days ago, it seemed even more chaotic.
The consultation categories were clearly divided, but everyone filled them out differently.
Some records were in chronological order.
Some were arranged by incident.
On other pages, Su-yeon seemed to have been in such a hurry that she'd just jotted down words here and there.
Café / Initiated contact O / Thinks of me as a friend? / Festival in 3 days
Yeon-ju stared at it for a while.
‘What does this even mean?’
It looked like she needed to decode it before anything else.
She pulled out a blank sheet of paper from beside her.
Then, without thinking, she drew some lines.
Date.
Current relationship.
Confirmed facts.
Speculation.
Next action.
Five sections.
Once she started transferring the original information, it organized itself much faster than she'd expected.
Yeon-ju turned to the second page.
It was similar.
‘These could be grouped under the same categories.’
The third.
The fourth.
Before she knew it, she'd reached the fifth.
“What are you doing?”
“Ah!”
Yeon-ju jolted.
Kang Su-yeon was standing by the door.
She was holding a convenience-store bag.
“Why do you always appear behind me?”
“I opened the door and came in.”
“Make some noise when you come in.”
“I opened the door.”
Yeon-ju pressed a hand to her chest.
Su-yeon came closer and looked down at the paper.
“What is this?”
“It’s just...”
Yeon-ju felt a little embarrassed.
“The records were hard to read.”
“So you made them over?”
“Not exactly. I just divided them into categories.”
Su-yeon picked up the paper.
She read it for a long time.
Yeon-ju grew nervous for no reason.
She wondered if she'd meddled with someone else's records without permission.
But then Su-yeon said, “This is good.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
Su-yeon looked at the next page too.
“It’s easier for me to tell what I wrote this way.”
Yeon-ju narrowed her eyes.
“You wrote these?”
“About half of them?”
“Then shouldn't you be able to read them?”
“I could when I was writing them.”
“But sometimes I don't know what they say when I look at them later.”
Yeon-ju was speechless.
Su-yeon smiled as if it were nothing unusual.
“Will you keep doing this?”
“Huh?”
“This.”
She shook the paper.
“Organizing them.”
Yeon-ju paused.
“Me?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“You’re good at it.”
It was such a simple answer.
Yeon-ju looked at the paper again.
She'd never thought of herself as particularly good at anything.
She'd only divided things up because she hated seeing them all jumbled together.
“You don't have to if you don't want to,” Su-yeon said.
Yeon-ju shook her head.
“It’s not that I don't want to.”
“Then it's decided.”
“What is?”
“Yeon-ju's role.”
“Already?”
“We don't have many people. When we find something, we have to put it to use right away.”
“Don't talk about people like they're objects.”
Su-yeon laughed and set the convenience-store bag on the desk.
“So you're in charge of the files.”
Yeon-ju looked down at the paper, feeling a little awkward.
In charge of the files.
It sounded grand.
Even though all she did was organize things.
Still, it wasn't bad.
For the first time, it felt like she had something to do in the club.
“What about Hyun-ah?”
“Class.”
“And the person named Do-hee?”
Yeon-ju asked without thinking.
Su-yeon looked up.
“Do-hee?”
“She was in the group chat.”
“Oh.”
“I still haven't seen her even once.”
“She doesn't usually come.”
“She’s a club member, though.”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
Su-yeon took a triangular rice ball out of the convenience-store bag.
“Because she can't be bothered.”
“Is that really the honest reason?”
“She’s not very interested in other people's love lives.”
That made even less sense to Yeon-ju.
“Then why is she in ILY?”
Su-yeon stopped as she unwrapped the rice ball.
“Because we're friends.”
“You and her?”
“Yeah.”
Then she added casually, “I was the one who asked her to join.”
Yeon-ju considered asking more, but Su-yeon was already eating the rice ball.
She didn't seem interested in explaining.
Just then, someone knocked on the door.
Knock, knock.
Yeon-ju and Su-yeon looked at the door at the same time.
“Come in,” Su-yeon said.
The door slowly opened.
A female student cautiously peeked her face inside first.
“Um...”
Her voice was quiet.
For a moment, Yeon-ju felt as if she were hearing her own voice.
The girl stood halfway outside the door.
“Is this ILY?”
Something shifted in Su-yeon's gaze.
She seemed strangely different from the person who had been eating a rice ball just moments ago.
“It is.”
Su-yeon swallowed what she was chewing and pointed to an empty chair.
“Come in.”
The girl carefully stepped inside.
She looked about the same age as Yeon-ju.
Even the way she gripped both straps of her bag tightly felt oddly familiar.
“Can I sit?”
“Of course.”
The girl perched on the edge of the chair.
Su-yeon set her rice ball aside and turned toward her.
“You came for a consultation, right?”
The girl gave a small nod.
“Yes.”
“This is your first time, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then I'll start by asking your name. You can use a fake name if you want.”
The girl hesitated.
“...I'm Park Seo-jin.”
“What year are you?”
“I'm a freshman.”
Yeon-ju straightened in her seat without realizing it.
She was a freshman too.
Su-yeon asked in a gentle voice, “What’s going on?”
Seo-jin moved her lips once.
Then she lowered her head.
“There’s someone I like.”
Yeon-ju looked at Su-yeon.
Su-yeon waited without reacting.
“He’s an upperclassman in my major...”
Seo-jin fidgeted with her bag strap.
“I haven't been able to stop thinking about him since I first saw him after starting college.”
Su-yeon asked, “What year is he?”
“He’s a sophomore.”
“Have you talked to him?”
Seo-jin's mouth closed.
Su-yeon tilted her head.
“Not even once?”
“...I’ve said hello.”
“Who said it first?”
“I did...”
Seo-jin's voice grew even quieter.
“He was coming out of the major lounge, and I ran into him, so I just said hello without thinking...”
Yeon-ju lowered her head slightly.
She understood somehow.
Even that much must have taken a lot of courage for Seo-jin.
Su-yeon didn't laugh either.
“That’s good.”
Seo-jin looked up.
“Huh?”
“You said hello.”
“That’s all I did.”
“It’s better than doing nothing.”
Seo-jin's expression relaxed ever so slightly.
Just then, the door opened again.
“I’m here.”
It was Jo Hyun-ah.
She seemed to have come straight from class, her bag hanging from one shoulder.
When Hyun-ah saw someone she didn't know in the room, she seemed to understand the situation immediately and lowered her voice.
“Are you in the middle of a consultation?”
Su-yeon nodded.
“The first one since Yeon-ju joined.”
At that, Yeon-ju turned her gaze toward Su-yeon.
This was the first case she'd seen since joining ILY.
Hyun-ah naturally took the empty chair.
“Go on.”
With another person in the room, Seo-jin's face grew tense again.
Su-yeon said, “It’s okay. She’s another club member.”
Then she glanced at Yeon-ju.
“She is too.”
Yeon-ju straightened her back.
“Oh. Right.”
Her eyes met Seo-jin's.
Yeon-ju gave her a small bow.
“Hello.”
“Hello...”
It was awkward.
But looking at Seo-jin's expression helped Yeon-ju relax a little too.
They seemed to be making almost the same face.
Hyun-ah asked, “How much do you know about your upperclassman?”
Seo-jin thought about it.
“His name, his year, and... a few of his classes?”
“What are his hobbies?”
“I don't know.”
“What about his friends?”
“That too...”
Hyun-ah nodded.
“Then before you can build a relationship, you need a point of contact.”
“A point of contact?”
“Right now, you two only know each other's faces.”
Seo-jin nodded.
Hyun-ah looked at Su-yeon.
Su-yeon seemed to have the same thought.
“Exactly.”
Seo-jin asked anxiously, “Then do I have to talk to him first?”
Su-yeon didn't answer right away.
“Can you talk to him?”
Seo-jin closed her mouth.
After a long pause, she said, “...I don't know.”
Su-yeon smiled.
“I figured.”
It wasn't teasing.
It was so matter-of-fact that Seo-jin smiled a little too.
Watching them, Yeon-ju moved her pen.
She pulled the chart she'd made earlier closer to her.
Client: Park Seo-jin / Freshman
Other person: Sophomore upperclassman in the same major
Current relationship: Know each other's face and name; one greeting
Goal: Create a point of contact to start a natural conversation
Yeon-ju stopped writing.
Su-yeon said, “But there’s one thing you need to know first.”
Seo-jin looked up.
“Yes?”
“We are going to help you.”
Su-yeon lightly tapped the table once with her finger.
“But the other person can't know we exist.”
Seo-jin blinked.
“Why?”
Hyun-ah explained for her.
“Because he might feel uncomfortable if he finds out later.”
“If he thinks the process of someone approaching him was actually planned by other people, he might feel like his feelings were being manipulated.”
Seo-jin's expression stiffened a little.
Su-yeon quickly added, “So we only help you build the path.”
“The path?”
“We figure out together how you can meet naturally and create an opportunity to start talking.”
Su-yeon looked Seo-jin straight in the eye.
“You have to do the talking, falling in love, and confessing yourself.”
A brief silence followed.
Seo-jin slowly nodded.
“...That’s what I want to do.”
Su-yeon smiled.
“Good.”
Yeon-ju moved her pen.
ILY Principles
No exposure of our involvement to the other person
The client is responsible for real actions and choices
Writing it down gave her a strange feeling.
Just a few days ago, she hadn't even known this club existed. Now she was recording its rules.
Hyun-ah asked, “Do you know who he usually hangs out with?”
Seo-jin thought, then nodded.
“I think there are a few upperclassmen he's close to.”
“How many?”
“Three. I often see the four of them together.”
Hyun-ah and Su-yeon exchanged a look at the same time.
Yeon-ju didn't miss it.
Su-yeon asked again, “You said the four of them are always together?”
“Yes.”
“Then we can match their numbers.”
Yeon-ju blinked.
“Their numbers?”
Su-yeon pointed at Seo-jin.
“One, Seo-jin.”
Then she pointed at herself.
“One, me.”
Her finger moved toward Hyun-ah.
“Three, including Hyun-ah.”
Finally, Su-yeon's gaze turned to Yeon-ju.
“Four.”
Yeon-ju's eyes widened.
“Me too?”
“Yeah.”
“Why am I included?”
“Because you're an ILY member.”
“I thought I was in charge of the files.”
“Does being in charge of the files mean you can't go out?”
“That's not what I mean, but...”
Su-yeon smiled.
“Don't worry. We haven't even decided to do it yet.”
Hyun-ah calmly picked up the thread.
“We're just considering one of the options available right now.”
Seo-jin still looked confused.
“What does that...?”
Yeon-ju realized first.
“No way.”
Su-yeon snapped her fingers.
“A group date.”
Seo-jin's face went stiff.
“What?”
“Four on four.”
“W-wait a second.”
Seo-jin raised both hands.
“I can't do something like that.”
“We haven't said you have to yet.”
Su-yeon laughed.
“We just found one possible option.”
Hyun-ah added, “And we don't even know if we can set one up right away. First we have to find out what the people on his side are like.”
“We can't just drag them out without a plan.”
Su-yeon said, “We also need to see whether they're even interested in going on one.”
Hearing that, Yeon-ju thought of one of the names she'd seen in the group chat.
Cha Do-hee.
Su-yeon seemed to have the same thought, because she took out her phone.
“Then let's check first.”
“Who are you going to ask?”
When Yeon-ju asked, Su-yeon replied while typing out a message.
“Our field operative.”
Yeon-ju's eyes widened slightly.
“Do-hee?”
Su-yeon looked up.
“You remembered her name.”
“I saw it in the group chat.”
“Good.”
Su-yeon sent the message.
A moment later, her phone gave a short buzz.
Su-yeon checked the screen.
Then she smiled.
“She’s coming.”
Yeon-ju found herself looking toward the door.
The last member, whose name she'd only seen in the group chat.
What kind of person was she?
And much sooner than she'd expected,
ILY's first case was beginning to move.
Episode 3: First Case — End.