Ch.6969. How Class A Prepares for the Festival

Two weeks later, on the day of the final exams’ end.

“Don’t let your guard down just because exams are over. Remember, studying is something you do regularly. You all know that, right?”

After giving this simple reminder, the homeroom teacher looked around the entire class, then picked up a piece of chalk and wrote something on the blackboard.

[Festival Preparation Meeting]

-Tap.

The sound of the chalk being put down and hands being dusted off was heard, and the homeroom teacher spoke.

“And, you all remember that the summer festival starts on Wednesday the week after next, right?”

“Ah.”

Hearing the teacher’s words, I suddenly remembered. Right, I’d been so focused on studying that I’d temporarily forgotten. The festival was just two weeks away.

If I recall correctly, it had the ridiculous name of “Chungha Festival”… but honestly, the name doesn’t matter. What’s important is what we do at the festival, isn’t it?

Given the large size of the school facilities, Chungha Highschool’s festival is quite elaborate. It makes most university festivals look like child’s play.

Besides the programs run by students themselves, there are singers and rappers invited from outside to brighten up the stage, so in a way, it’s on par with—or even surpasses—university festivals.

“Teacher, what do we do during the festival?”

“Right, I was just about to explain that.”

Someone raised their hand and asked, and the teacher began a lengthy speech. The explanation was quite long, but to summarize the teacher’s words:

‘The festival will run for three days from Wednesday to Friday, and during those three days, there will be programs prepared by students alongside programs by external instructors, making for a fulfilling time.’

“Oh, so do we need to prepare something too?”

“Yes, first-year students need to run one program per class.”

The teacher’s statement sent ripples through the class, and everyone started murmuring. They were probably feeling pressured about having to do something.

I already knew about this, so I wasn’t particularly moved. As I rested my chin on my hand and observed the reactions, Hwa Nabi tapped my shoulder and said:

“Siwoo, is there anything you’d like to do for the festival?”

“I’d like to rest a bit.”

After running non-stop for the past two weeks, my body had accumulated some fatigue. I was just being honest, but Hwa Nabi raised her index finger and poked my side.

“Don’t joke around.”

I was being 100% sincere. I was about to say so, but stopped when I saw Hwa Nabi’s face. One wrong word and she looked ready to pinch my side.

“Well, something that doesn’t burden the students too much while still making a decent profit would be good. Like setting up a themed shop to sell things, or screening movies.”

In the original story, didn’t they have a tea house on the first day and a movie screening on the second? I answered by vaguely recalling, and suddenly the entire class’s attention was on me.

“…”

Did I say something wrong? I awkwardly rubbed the back of my neck as everyone started commenting.

“A shop? That sounds fun!”

“Movie screening would be good too. It doesn’t require much preparation.”

“Then let’s do both. A themed shop on the first day, and a movie screening on the second. How about that?”

The last comment came from our class president, Lim Hansol. When even Hansol, who had the full trust of the class, supported my opinion, everything proceeded smoothly afterward.

Because of my insignificant comment, we really ended up deciding on a themed shop and movie screening.

“For the movies, we can just get a few with long running times, but what theme should we use for the shop on the first day? And we need to decide what to sell too.”

Hansol stood up and asked everyone, but no clear answer emerged immediately.

Instead, everyone started giving me strange looks. The meaning behind their gazes was clear.

“…”

Simply put, they were saying the one who suggested the idea should take responsibility. This is why I didn’t want to get involved.

Since I couldn’t just ignore them and sit there, I added a comment.

“Rather than just a shop selling things, a tea house might be better. We can divide people into those working in the kitchen and those serving customers, and sell things like snacks and tea. Even if they don’t sell well, we can share them among ourselves, so there won’t be much loss.”

“That’s a good idea. Just selling tea might be plain, so we could add coffee and sweet desserts too.”

“It would be boring to just sell store-bought items, so why don’t we make the food ourselves?”

“Does anyone know how to make food?”

“I, I’ve done a lot of baking.”

Once I got the conversation flowing, everyone started exchanging opinions.

When they were vaguely told they had to do something, they showed no enthusiasm, but now that we had decided specifically what to do, their motivation seemed to appear out of nowhere.

“So the program for the first day will be a café selling various items. We also need to serve customers, but what theme should we use for that? We should consider that other classes might have similar concepts, so let’s think about it.”

Hansol, who had summarized everyone’s opinions, was looking at me. I don’t know why he kept asking me, but… let me answer first.

“How about a hospital?”

“A hospital… you mean with a nurse and doctor concept?”

“Yeah, the servers can use that concept, and we can decorate the classroom to look like a hospital. If you can’t picture it, aim to make it look similar to the infirmary on the first floor. We can push desks together and cover them with white sheets to make beds.”

I paused slightly and spoke as if it was my own opinion, but these were all things Hansol had already said. However, the classmates who didn’t know this agreed that it was a good idea.

“Right, that sounds fun. We can get matching outfits like class T-shirts. Boys as doctors, girls as nurses. Any other opinions?”

When Hansol organized and summarized the opinions, everyone seemed to agree. At this point, adding more opinions would just be excessive. Just as A class’s program was about to be decided as a hospital-themed tea house, just like in the original story…

“Ah, wait a moment.”

Someone raised their hand and called out.

“About the outfits, how about this?”

Wondering what it was, I turned around to see that the person who raised their hand was none other than Jinhee. For some reason, her eyes were fixed directly on me.

Yes, if it was just her gaze, that would be fine. But I don’t understand why there was such intense hostility in her eyes. I felt a chill and rubbed my arms, but what came out of Jinhee’s mouth was even more chilling.

“It’s boring to just divide roles by gender. How about having some boys be nurses too? And conversely, some girls could be doctors.”

“Oh, that’s not bad! What do others think?”

“Sounds good. It could be really fun!”

It’s a well-known fact that having a twist is much better for attracting attention than a predictable repertoire… but why did she say it while looking at me?

“…Huh.”

Wait a minute… is she…? My eyes widened as I paused in thought. But Jinhee’s mouth opened faster than mine.

“We’ll draw lots to decide who wears the nurse uniform. The boys don’t have any objections, right?”

“Well, sure.”

“If it’s by lottery, no complaints.”

Everyone in the class except me seemed to agree with Jinhee’s proposal. So I, who was about to say something, had to stop, and Jinhee’s eyes momentarily sparked as she looked at me.

Why is she burning with such hostility? It was incomprehensible to me, so I observed her closely, and Jinhee, feeling my gaze, clenched her fist. This caused the strip-like thing she was holding to crumple.

“…Ah.”

After staring for a while, I realized.

The identity of the strip that Jinhee crumpled with her own hand was a preliminary grade report.

And Jinhee… had been pushed down to tentative second place in the school. The new first place was probably me.

Was the reason she suddenly harbored hostility toward me because of grades? But that was something I couldn’t help.

I thought I’d done enough and deliberately got a few more answers wrong, but I didn’t expect her to score worse than me who intentionally made mistakes.

-Grind.

“…”

*

After the meeting, on the way home.

She, walking alongside me, spoke first.

“So our class concept was decided as a hospital.”

“Yeah.”

I was thinking if there was anything else to add—and thought it might be fun to add an intensive care unit theme, which made me a bit uneasy. But since the meeting was already over, it couldn’t be changed now.

“So where will you work?”

“I’m not sure. Either in the kitchen or serving customers, but I’ll probably help in the kitchen. I’m used to working in kitchens.”

“Really?”

The kitchen. It was a reassuring choice, but on the other hand, I felt a bit disappointed. Maybe because I knew what kind of impact Hwa Nabi’s nurse cosplay would have.

Of course, since this was a school-sponsored festival, such provocative outfits wouldn’t be allowed. But still.

“You look really disappointed.”

“…No, I’m not.”

I reflexively answered, but she looked at my face and chuckled. My expression must have given me away.

“No? You look extremely disappointed.”

“Well… I guess so.”

When I inadvertently muttered my honest feelings, she suddenly stopped walking. Wondering why, I stopped too.

Hwa Nabi, looking up at me slightly, said:

“Don’t worry, if you get sick, I’ll wear it for you again later.”

“…Really?”

She said such an outrageous thing with a nonchalant face, even smiling brightly, making my heart race as I watched her.

Looking back now, she should have been a bit prettier. I don’t know how I managed to hold back then. Was it because I was too dizzy to think about such things?

“Yes, but let’s save that pleasure for later and go do the task we’ve been assigned now, shall we?”

“Yeah, we should.”

The task we were assigned was to buy simple snacks to sell at the concept café. Making all desserts by hand would be too labor-intensive and not efficient for the time invested.

“Let’s go then.”

With those words, Hwa Nabi naturally linked her arm with my right arm. After a momentary pause, I surrendered my captured arm to her.

“What should we buy first?”

“Hmm, should we buy snacks first? I think the kids would like it if we bought from that dessert shop up ahead.”

“We’ll have to get in line first.”

Hwa Nabi smiled with an expectant face. I smiled back at her.

“We can wait a bit. We have plenty of time since we finished early, right?”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

…It looks like it’s going to be a very enjoyable festival.