Episode 1 : Kogyeol

Kogyeol was sitting in the student council office at his desk. The other members weren’t there right now, but he had already done all of his paperwork for the day. He slapped a stack of papers on his desk to even them out - the sound satisfying him - and placed them at the corner of his desk, to wait for when his secretary would come get them.

He’d been surprised when they had been assigned roles to fit-in better at the school, but not displeased. After all, being in charge and positions of responsibility were things that came naturally to him. Besides, the worries of one human high school were so ridiculous considering what he was used to deal with that it was mostly child’s play for him. So he often found himself - like now - with lots of time on his hands, to think.

He rotated on his swivel chair and got up, walking to the window, hands clasped behind his back. He stared at the sports field, just like he had that first night, except that now it was full of students - mostly from the soccer club - who were having a practice game or some-such. Kogyeol had no idea about these things. He shook his head at the sight of Hwanhee shouting in delight after scoring a goal, and his entire team jumping on him, making him look even happier, if possible. He definitely had no idea about those things.

It had been exactly a week since that night. All of them had been advised to give the human time to adapt to their presence before trying to enter her life. Choi Deok Soong. An unusual name. But then, all human names sounded strange to his ear. He had a file on her in the locked, bottom drawer of his desk, but there was no need to take it out since he had already memorized all its contents: Senior, average student, member of the broadcasting club, had once won an award for a radio project she had concocted in her junior year. Not a model student, but had never committed any serious trespass or gotten into any sort of trouble. There was really nothing in there to help him win her trust. There was a picture too, but even that he’d manage to memorize; though it did not look exactly quite like her. She was 167cm tall, slender, had a slightly pointed chin, unusually shaped eyes that appeared quite large, even if they didn’t have a double eyelid, a peachy complexion, shoulder-length dark straight hair - the color quite near to his own - that she almost always wore in a high ponytail, and an almost permanent smirk on her face. She was pretty - if the other boys in the council were to be believed - and drifted somewhere in the middle of the school hierarchy.

It shouldn’t be too hard to approach her - in fact, he already had, through his duties as school president and her functions with the broadcasting club - but it had just been a brief and fruitless encounter. At first he’d thought that his position with the council would definitely surpass the advantage that the 7 other angels-in-training who shared her classroom had, but it had not proven very fruitful. The truth was, he knew how to deal with rules, deadlines and paperwork; but he had no idea how to deal with people.

“President Go!”

The voice of his secretary made him turn around. A sophomore boy - so short, from the back he still looked like a middle-schooler - stood spritely at his desk, clutching a few black files to his chest and waiting like an eager puppy. A very serious, eager puppy. Secretary Min, in an attempt to copy him, had cut his black hair quite short and given it a severe side parting, using too much gel to try and get the front bit that little curve that came to Kogyeol’s hair naturally, but unfortunately only resulted in making himself look even more like a nerd. Kogyeol didn’t have the heart to tell him him.

“Yes, Secretary Min?” asked the taller boy, walking over.

“Here are the weekly reports from the school clubs. Only soccer and basketball are missing.” reported the young man, robot-like.

“Big surprise…” the president muttered to himself, briefly flipping through some of the files before discarding them on his desk. His secretary retained a handful of papers in his hands and Kogyeol glanced at them, making the boy snap to attention and hand them over.

“Oh! And this is a notice from the Principal. It’s about the sports festival.”

“Oh?” the taller boy raised an eyebrow as he started reading the first page of the document.

“Yes sir. Teachers and respective classes are in charge of prepping for the activities and performances, but we’re expected to collaborate with them and take on most of the organisational work. We need to start gathering up volunteers and setting up a committee right away.” the shorter boy explained at lightning speed.

Kogyeol nodded as he talked, both in response to the boy’s words and what he was reading.

“I’ll talk to the class representatives so they send us a member for the temporary committee.” Secretary Min suggested, since the president was remaining silent.

“Good.”

“And, for the volunteers, well…” he trailed off, looking up at his boss who was still reading. Kogyeol stopped and stared at him. “Usually, we put up a signup sheet on the board in the main hall.” he added, nervously.

Kogyeol still stared at him; or through him would have been a more appropriate description. It made the other student slightly uncomfortable.

“What if we had a radio broadcast asking for volunteers?” the older boy said suddenly.

“Great idea sir! I’ll get right on it!” exclaimed the younger boy.

“No need. You’re busy…” answered Kogyeol, dismissively, tossing the papers on top of the files on his desk, “I’m free so I’ll drop by the broadcasting room before I leave.”

“I’m not busy.” retorted the boy.

Kogyeol gestured at the other papers on his desk, the neat stack that he’d placed at the corner only a short while ago. “These are the budget predictions for the 2nd semester. I need you to deliver them to Principal Kwon.”

The boy’s eyes widened, and then looked back at his boss in awe, before quickly nodding and gathering the pile in his arms. “Yes sir. I’ll make sure to do it right away!”

And just like that, he was off again. Kogyeol chuckled. Min Sangho was a great secretary, but he could be a little bit too eager to please sometimes.

*

The broadcasting club was located in the basement of Annexe B, just under the library, and in fact, not on Kogyeol’s way at all. It was oddly out of the way for such an important club, he thought as he made his way there.

The annexe building was small, and the basement even smaller. It was only a short hallway, about 25 meters long, flanked by one large language lab on one side, a small auditorium on the other, some toilets, and the broadcasting club room. The whole floor was completely deserted when he showed up, though it usually was after shool hours. Occasionally, members of the brass band liked to practice in there, since it was so out of the way, no one would see or hear them play, but not today. Today the hall was dark and quiet, which made for a rather gloomy atmosphere.

The council president would have turned turned back if he’d been surrounded by complete darkness, but he spotted a small sliver of light coming from the club room door that had been left slightly ajar, so he assumed there must still be someone inside. Still. Even though the door was open, he knocked before letting himself in. It was only proper.

“Hello?” he called out after no one answered, and looked around.

The main room - just like the hallway had been - was dead quiet. He should have expected it since this club’s main activities were usually during lunch time (or occasionally in the morning), but he had thought that perhaps planning of future programming and such might take place after school. Although to be fair, it was already well over 2 hours after the end of classes. Everyone had probably just left already.

He took a few steps in to observe his surroundings. The last time he had been here, it had been only in-and-out, a brief 2-minutes visit to discuss something with the club head, with secretary Min in tow… he hadn’t had a chance to notice anything. But now he took a moment to look. He could see the actual recording room through a glass window - a smaller sub-room in the back with two microphones on a table and a set of chairs behind them. The main room though - the one he was standing in, was actually quite large and had a well lived-in look that felt slightly alien to him. There was another table - big enough to fit at least 10 people - on the left side, but it was covered in books, papers, posters and various instruments; two desks - one of which was flanked with another microphone and a panoply of fancy-looking equipment as well as a large screen computer and a TV. The other desk, just like the table, was stacked with books and appeared to be unusable. In fact, there were books, and files, and piles of paper pretty much everywhere you decided to set your eyes: on the desks, along the walls, on the floor… even on two of the three couches that filled the right side of the room. In fact, it was probably because of the mess that he hadn’t immediately noticed her.

On the third, and largest of the three couches, lied the sleeping form of a female student in uniform. She was lying in an awkward position, her legs still on the floor but her upper body sprawled on the leather, with a textbook pressed against her cheek. Her arms hung limply in front of her, and it looked as if she’d fallen asleep in the middle of reading. It was Choi Deok Soong.

The council president hesitated for a moment. This was the person he was looking for, but he had expected to find her awake, at least. He had no idea what to do with her in this state. So for a moment he just stared at her. The more he looked, the more he found himself agreeing with the boys in his club: this girl was pretty. Even in this distorted position, which should have made her look ridiculous to him; she did not. She looked peaceful in sleep, her dark lashes occasionally fluttering when she took a deeper breath, and he found himself smiling at her.

He was still debating what to do - whether to wake her or not - when a small groan escaped her lips and she rolled over, muttering something incomprehensible, and the movement knocked her book to the floor. She rolled over again and very slowly sat up on the couch, eyes barely open and completely unaware of her surroundings. A chuckle escaped Kogyeol’s lips and the rare smile made his eyes crinkle. While she had looked angelic as she slept, now he noticed that at least half her hair had come out of her ponytail, her shirt had ridden up and now looked slightly askew, and there was a red mark on her left cheek, where the book had been.

The sound of his voice seemed to make her come back to reality. Her eyes opened gradually and, after blinking a few times, focused on him. She looked at him for a good 30 seconds without moving, and then, as if realizing who he was, her eyes widened in shock and she hastily straightened herself up as best she could. But just as abruptly, as if realizing what she was doing, she stopped mid-motion to glare at him. He could only stare back.

“Can I help you?” she asked, on a formal tone that yet somehow verged on impoliteness.

For a moment Kogyeol was at a loss for words. This had never happened before. In his world, everything was always clear and in perfect order; himself most of all. He struggled a bit with his words, trying to give a proper explanation of the announcement he wanted her club to do for Sports Day, but managed to summarize what he wanted to say without looking too much like an idiot.

“Sure,” she finally answered, a smile playing on her lips, as if seeing the president at a loss made up for having him see her in an embarrassing state, “no problem.”

“Don’t you have to ask your club leader first?” he asked, watching her put the textbook she’d been sleeping on inside the backpack at her feet.

“That’s pretty much me.” she retorted, closing the backpack and lifting it on one shoulder.

“Really?” he raised an eyebrow. That wasn’t what his files said.

“Well, not on paper…” she paused, her eyes looking away from his as a slight flush came to her cheeks, “… but I pretty much have the same authority. If I say it goes, it goes.” She gave him a little smirk as a way to finish her sentence, which left him baffled.

Misinterpreting his reaction, she added flatly, “They have to listen to me.” and then walked right past him to go sit at the chair in front of the computer. “I’m the oldest here so…”

“Ah yes, I was wondering about that.” he said, following her, “How come you’re still in here even though you’re a senior? I thought seniors usually quit during the second half of the year to focus on their studies?”

“I could ask you the same thing, Mister president.” she stopped her typing to smirk at him again and he felt slightly unmade.

“I… hum… well, it’s, not the same… school for me is not….” he stuttered.

Then she laughed at his reaction.

“Of course.” she returned her attention to the screen, “You’re like a genius or something so you don’t need to go to cram school…”

“I…” he trailed off into silence, not knowing what to say.

“I just love it.” she answered quietly. And for a moment he was confused until he realized she was answering his question. “I love it and I want to do it for as long as I can.”

He stared at her, silently blown away. Why did this girl he’d just met - who was messy and clumsy and flirty, and his complete opposite in every way - make him feel like this? She was almost like a girl version of Kuhn. She should irritate and annoy him. And yet….

“When we graduate… I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do this again, so… you know…” then she turned to look back at him and said, “Live in the moment.”

She hadn’t done anything special but her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were shining and in that moment she looked especially beautiful and he was speechless. But she seemed unaware of the effect she was having on him and simply got up, walked to the printer and grabbed the paper that was coming out.

He snapped out of it and she brought it to him.

“Would that be ok?” she asked, meaning the proposal she had just typed out.

He looked over the paper, glad to have something to focus on besides the dark round pools of her eyes, and nodded.

“I can make sure the announcement goes up during lunch tomorrow, and then everyday this week.” she added.

“That would be great, thanks.” he said, taking a step towards her to extend his hand in her direction.

She laughed, “What are you, a businessman?!” before shrugging him off and walking away towards the door, shouldering her backpack the whole way as she went.

Kogyeol let the hand that was holding the paper fall against his leg, staring at the door that had closed behind her, perplexed. He had never met anyone like her in his entire life, and had no idea how to deal with her at all. For the first time in his life, he had no idea how to handle a situation.

But just as he was thinking these thoughts, the door opened again, just enough to let her head poke through.

“Come on!”

She was flashing him a huge grin, as if she was waiting for him to follow her. Sure, he had no idea how to deal with the situation, but her cheeky smile was brightening up her whole face. Taking a deep breath, he gave himself a little shake and followed her out of the room, mumbling to himself:

“Live in the moment… I guess.”

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