Life, Once Again!

* * *“You endured well,” Maru said, patting Dojin on the back. Dojin looked like he chewed on something bitter.“How’d he manage to learn about that?”“He probably heard it somewhere. He has a good head on his shoulders, so he’ll probably try to use it against you.”Changhu wasn’t like a typical delinquent at all, the boy knew exactly how communities worked. Now that he knew their weak point, he would start trying to test the waters to see how far he could go with this.“If it wasn’t for the competition… Ugh!”Dojin punched his palm with a fist. He must care about the club a lot, seeing how he managed to endure all of this still.“You just need to lay low for a bit. He’ll grow tired of it soon enough.”“But what about my pride? I can’t even dare imagine having to lay low in front of that kid.”“You’re really going to be angered by someone like him? You need to get over stuff like this. You’re an adult.”“...Well, true.”“That’s enough then, isn’t it?”Maru dragged Dojin up the stairs. After coming up to the fifth floor, the three of them opened the door to the auditorium where could they see Miso standing amongst all the students.“Get over here!” Miso shouted.Maru ran over, thinking that the fun was just about to start.“We’re going to stretch a bit before going straight in. We’re also going to be making our props and costumes today, so you better be ready.”“Yes!”“Alright, mouth muscles, go.”The students began stretching their mouths individually once Miso gave them the go ahead. Some of them stretched their mouth widely to loosen up the muscles there, and others moved their tongue all over the place to stress that too. Some even worked their lips a little bit.“Ah! Ahh!”“Haaah...”They shouted loudly to open up their vocal cords, and then let out air to open up their nostrils. Maru followed suit. It wasn’t that difficult, since he’d seen them do this many times before. Actually, it almost felt like he learned this in the past. Maybe he attended an acting lesson when he was a road manager? In any case, this definitely didn’t feel like the first time.Next up, it was time to stretch the rest of their muscles. The club members stood in a circle, and started walking slowly. One step every ten seconds. They were making sure that when they walked, that their balance wasn’t lost, their arms were in the right place, and that their feet were landing in the right places. Unlike what it looked like, this practice actually required a lot of concentration.The club members returned to their normal pace once Miso clapped.“Phew.”The kids sighed in relief, but then.“Why are you sighing?! Pay attention to your breathing!” Miso immediately shouted. The air in the auditorium had turned incredibly heavy. After around ten more minutes of this, the club members split up to start stretching on their own. Oftentimes in small theaters, actors were very close to the audience. But in larger ones, especially the one in Dream Hall, it was difficult to discern the audience’s faces. That’s why actors were often required to make very large movements, have very clear diction, and a very loud voice. In everyday life, it was possible for people to make out emotions just from the way a person blinked, or the way their lips twitched. But being on a stage made it difficult to make out such expressions. Oftentimes, overreacting to everything looked just right to the audience from the stage. That was the reason why many actors reached out for the sky or whatnot during their monologues. Small movements, as a matter of fact, only served to frustrate the audience. No matter what role you were playing, it was essential that you act “big”.“Come here, we’re going to do one reading before practicing our movement.”As the club members started doing the readings without their scripts, Miso moved around with her green tape, marking out boundaries on the stage. Of course, the club members knew exactly what she was doing at this point.“This is the size of the stage in the Ansan Art Hall. The competition will take place there in October. It was built fairly recently, so the stage is pretty big, and they have a lot of tools we can use. But! The big stage will be a minus for you guys. The play will look really bad on stage if your movements are even a little bit off. I’ll take you there next time, so just be aware for now that it’s about this big.”Last time in the competition, the club competed at the Suwon Art Center. It was not a place designated to house plays, but at an auditorium meant for various events. But this time, things were different. They were performing a play at an actual place meant for plays.“So it’s bigger than the...”“College competition? Of course.”“Hah.”The club members sighed, looking at the green tape below them.“It’s now October 18th, we have exactly a month left. I have already registered us for the competitions, and there isn’t going to be a prelim this time around, since this is more of a festival. Most teams are there to have fun. We’re different, though. We’re here to win. We’re going to win over there, and we’re going to win at the winter competition in December. Understood?”“Yes!”Miso stretched out her hand with a clap.“Ok, let’s cheer ourselves up before we actually go into this.”The club members all stretched out their hands in unison. Maru put his hand on in the middle as well. This was the first time he was taking part in something like this. He didn’t feel anything big rising up in his chest, but he did smile. Finally, he was a step inside the circle. “Blue Sky!”“Yeah!”Practice began shortly after.