The More You Know

It’s Sunday and tomorrow the club week is going to be started at the neighboring university. There will be a lot of trainings going on and they will go to a refreshing place for membership training. They hope it will go just fine, like there’s no annoying seniors or lame itinerary included. Chaera, Dowoon, and Sungwoo will leave tomorrow so they prepare their things from their backpacks, clothes, and other needs. Hareum is helping Chaera in her room. She makes sure her friend doesn’t forget anything. Dowoon and Sungwoo has been walking back and forth to each room, make sure they don’t forget anything for the band club membership training tomorrow.

“Haneul said that it will be fun,” Hareum says to Chaera while she’s helping her folding some of her clothes to be brought. They sit near Chaera’s backpack.

“Yeah, hope so,” Chaera answers as she puts her things one by one there. “Clothes, done. Underwear, done. Hmm,” she looks around as she’s searching for something. “Oh yeah! Toothbrush, later,” she reminds herself.

“Okay, your basketball jersey or anything like that?” Hareum asks and Chaera remembers and gets it right away from her wardrobe. “You almost forgot. If you forget about it, you might get a punishment from the seniors,” Hareum says and Chaera shudders with that thought. Until now, she has been communicating well with the seniors on the basketball team but she doesn’t know what they will like on the training tomorrow. They can be scary.

Meanwhile, Dowoon is walking to Sungwoo’s room. Sungwoo lets his door open so Dowoon could enter easily, just for this time. “Ya, Sungwoo-ya,” he calls him. Sungwoo is almost done with his task and his head turns at Dowoon.

“What?” he says and then he zips his backpack. “You’re not done already?” he asks.

“Should I bring another clothes or not?” he asks seriously. He has been thinking about this and Sungwoo decides to get out from his room and go to Dowoon’s room.

“Let me see,” Sungwoo says and walks passing him. Dowoon follows behind. Sungwoo finds Dowoon’s backpack is still opened and on his bed, Sungwoo finds a stack of clothes. “This is too many,” Sungwoo tells him when he holds Dowoon’s clothes. It’s about four pieces from tops, bottoms, and underwear. “Don’t bring too much. We’re just there for 3 days and 2 nights,” he looks to his friend and Dowoon folds his arms, taps his right foot. Dowoon is unsure to not bring those clothes tomorrow. Sungwoo sighs and he checks Dowoon’s backpack. “These clothes are enough,” he tells him as he bends down and looks into Dowoon’s bag. “Stop putting it again,” Sungwoo says. He still can see Dowoon’s restless expression even though he’s just quiet, so Sungwoo puts the clothes on Dowoon’s bed away. He closes Dowoon’s wardrobe and looks at him seriously. “We’re not leaving for a week!”

“Okay,” Dowoon answers in a low voice and then he zips his backpack. “Done,” he says and Sungwoo nods.

“That’s what you should do,” Sungwoo gives his comment. The boys are done and the girls are still in Chaera’s room.

“Okay, so it’s just toothbrush left,” Chaera reminds herself once again and Hareum nods. She has been listening to that item many times. Finally, Chaera zips her backpack and Hareum sighs of relief. “Now, I’m hungry,” Chaera says. “Let’s eat!” and the girls get out from the room. Dowoon and Sungwoo see them but the girls go downstairs first. Dinner passed, but Chaera wants to have a snack. “We have leftover food, right?” Chaera asks Hareum as they enter the kitchen.

“Yeah,” and Hareum opens the refrigerator right away. They take out the leftover food and prepare pan to heat the food.

“I’m home,” Haneul just arrives home and he smells something good. Junghyun is behind him. They came back after watching Yeonsoo’s performance. He goes to the kitchen with Junghyun behind him and he finds the girls are in front of the stove. “What are you guys making?” he asks as he goes to them and takes a peek in between.

“We just heat the food,” Hareum simply answers. “How’s the performance?”

“Great, as usual,” Haneul gives her his smile and Hareum is shuddered because Haneul seems creepy in her eyes. “I invite Junghyun over,” he says and Hareum widens her eyes. Chaera wants to react but she’s too focus with the food on the pan. Hareum turns around and finds Junghyun stands there near the dining table and smirks to her. “I’m going to my room first,” Haneul says and he leaves Junghyun there.

Chaera turns her head slightly and finds him there. “Hello,” Chaera greets him and slightly nods to him, then she continues. Hareum is still surprised with him there and she decides to just focus on what Chaera does. Hareum and Junghyun made some kind of agreement to not ignore or avoid each other, it’s for Hareum to not avoid him and she still doesn’t understand why she agreed.

“Hareum-a, I heard you’ll go to an MT on Tuesday,” Junghyun starts a conversation and Hareum frowns. Chaera glances at Hareum’s expression and she wants to laugh, but she holds it so much.

“You should answer him,” Chaera whispers and Hareum forcedly gives Chaera a smile as her gratitude reminding her about that childish agreement.

Hareum slightly turns her head at him. Junghyun takes a seat. “Yeah,” she answers shortly.

“Make sure you prepare everything well,” Junghyun says. “Being in a debate team, whoa. Are you crazy or what?” he teases her and she just gives her forced smile.

Chaera is done and Hareum puts the heated food on the dining table. “Eat if you want to eat,” Hareum is being chic these days to Junghyun and he understands that. Junghyun just smiles. And when Hareum wants to take a bowl, Junghyun suddenly grabs her arm and makes her stop. “What?” she says as she turns her body to look at him chicly. “You want to eat?” Hareum asks and Junghyun nods with his smile. “Don’t smile like that,” she slaps his hand hard that is grabbing her and it makes his hand go. Minutes after that, the friends gather in the dining table with Haneul. They take their seats and Hareum sits across Junghyun. Chaera sits beside her and across her is Haneul. Dowoon takes a seat beside Chaera and across him is Minhyun with Sungwoo sits beside Dowoon. 

Haneul likes to take care of people, so he puts kimchi on top of Chaera’s rice and he does the same to Hareum and Junghyun. Sungwoo is speechless and feels strange at the scene where Haneul takes care of Chaera first rather than his friend or family. Ey, Sungwoo-ya, don’t think anything strange, he reminds himself and continues to eat. But as he pays attention, Haneul does that again. “Eat a lot,” Haneul says to Chaera. “You’ll be on an MT tomorrow, so you have to fill your energy,” and Sungwoo just listens and glances at this scene.

Minhyun is the observer. He has a quick notice on what Sungwo has in mind. It makes Minhyun think that what he said to Sungwoo months ago was right. It’ll happen in no time, Minhyun thinks, if Sungwoo acts like this.

“She might get fat because of you,” Junghyun gives his comment and Chaera nods without looking at Haneul and Hareum laughs at her response.

“Okay, okay,” Haneul says and continues eating. “Dowoon-a, Sungwoo-ya, you guys have an MT tomorrow, right?”

“Yes, hyung,” Dowoon answers while munching his food.

“Eat a lot,” Haneul says and both of them just nod. The girls are just eating to the amount they need and they finish first. “Oh, you guys are done?” Haneul asks looking curiously to them and Chaera nods to him before she goes to the sink and washes her dish. Sungwoo gets a misunderstanding that Haneul was looking at Chaera. Minhyun takes notice once again and he smirks.

“You can leave first, Chaera-ya,” Hareum says and she does the dishes.

“Thank you for the food,” Minhyun says and puts away his dishes. Chaera leaves the kitchen and she goes to the lounge space upstairs. And Minhyun takes this opportunity to whisper some information to Hareum.

It makes Hareum react, “Oh!” as she becomes excited looking to Minhyun and Minhyun signs her to stay quiet.

“What?” Haneul asks and Hareum naturally ignores him and continues her activity. Minhyun, then, leaves the space and goes upstairs. The remaining people are curious about what they were talking earlier, all of them including Junghyun. But Junghyun decides to not to care about it.

After they all done and Junghyun intentionally to be the last person there, he goes to Hareum to put his dish and asks, “What were you talking about?” he stands near Hareum and Hareum can feel his presence beside her. She’s startled and sighs. “Sorry,” he says in a low voice. The rest of the people are upstairs.

“Why do you want to know?” Hareum asks back and cleans up his plate. He looks at her whom avoids his gaze, deeply.

“Why did he talk so close to you?” he asks, half serious and half joking. Hareum finishes her last plate and looks at him with a smirk. She doesn’t believe this.

“Why? Is that a problem?” she talks back as she wipes her hands. These days, after their reconciliation and agreement, Hareum becomes braver talking to him, but not with a manner a person should have. Just to him only. It’s like she’s punishing him.

“Of course, it is! Don’t you know?” he becomes braver as well in confessing his honest feeling and thought toward her.

“What?” she folds her arms and stands cockily.

“You’re precious to me, so it matters!” he says it firmly in a voice both of them could only hear.

Hareum is flustered, for sure. But she scoffs, “Oppa! You become too cheesy!” she cringes and she leaves him there. He laughs but follows her. “I don’t why you become so cheesy that I can’t stand it!” she complains and he just finds it fun.

…

The family has breakfast. It’s Monday and it’s an MT day for Chaera, Dowoon, and Sungwoo. They wake up early as they want to eat their breakfast first and prepare the remaining things. It’s weekday and usual for all of them to wake up early. Mr. Kang sits on his usual chair and Mrs. Kang is serving food to the dining table. The kids are going to the dining room. Haneul sits beside Chaera and Hareum is across him. Sungwoo is surprised inside seeing this scene again but they seem to sit naturally, he’s still suspicious of them. Somehow, he thinks it’s weird for a guy falls for Chaera. He just feels strange.

Sungwoo sits beside Hareum and Minhyun is across him, Dowoon is sitting beside Sungwoo. “Don’t forget your drum sticks,” Dowoon says and Sungwoo just responds shortly.

“Oh, you’re guys are going to an MT, huh?” Mr. Kang asks and the three of them nods. He reads his newspaper and coolly saying, “Ya, membership training these days, don’t let the seniors bully you.”

“Don’t scare them, honey!” Mrs. Kang tells him and sits on the dining chair, joins them in. She looks at the kids with a smile and says, “Let’s eat!” and they wait until the parents start their first spoon and they follow after Haneul. Once again, Sungwoo sees Haneul is taking care of Chaera by giving her side dish above her rice and Chaera slightly nods at him as her gratitude. Minhyun is eating and he unintentionally sees how Sungwoo is glancing at Chaera. Minhyun carefully and naturally glances at Chaera who is beside him. He sees Sungwoo is eating again and Minhyun sees Haneul gives a side dish to Chaera’s rice and Minhyun watches Sungwoo again. Ah, so it becomes like this. He seems to take notice of somethingas he nods.

The breakfast is over and they start leaving the table. The three are going downstairs with carrying their backpacks. “Oh, you guys are leaving already?” Mrs. Kang asks and she escorts them outside. She’s looking at them like her own kids leaving the house for days. They put on their shoes and start to get out from the house one by one. Suddenly she feels the house will be so empty and quiet with just Minhyun here. “Be careful,” she says and wraps herself warmly in her cardigan.

“Thanks, Mrs. Kang,” Chaera says and they bow politely to her and she waves goodbye at them. “See you in three days,” Chaera smiles and Mrs. Kang nods. Hareum and Minhyun walk out a minute after that when they are already going.

“See you guys!” Hareum shouts from a far and waves at them. They look back and Dowoon waves back.

“It’s not like we’re going for a year,” Dowoon says jokingly to Chaera and Sungwoo. They just smile remembering her expression back then.

...

Hareum and Minhyun continue their last dishes to wash. “Told you,” Minhyun says. “We don’t need to do a big plan, sooner or later I believe that Sungwoo will fall for Chaera himself.”

“Yeah,” Hareum agrees. “One important thing is that Sungwoo doesn’t know about Haneul’s relationship status,” and Minhyun nods with a proud smile. “That makes it more interesting,” Hareum chuckles. “We should hide that too,” she says interestingly and they laugh.

“What are you guys laughing at?” Mrs. Kang hears their voice from the living room and they shut up right away.

“Nothing, mom,” Hareum answers and inside their heads are full with interesting plans they want to carry out those plans into reality.

…

The training is held in mountains for basketball team. The band team holds their training near the beach. Seunghoon, Chaera’s senior and the captain of the basketball team already said that the activity would be filled with a lot of basketball practices. Just thinking of that, Chaera is thrilled and shuddered. The practice will be hard, Chaera already takes a guess. She was once doing this kind of activity in secondary school and it wasn’t even joking. There will be a lot of running, dribbling, all of the sport events will take place.

The band team is having fun but they should write and perform a song. They will have a battle and the loser will spend their punishment inside a ghost house. The committee planned a lot of tiring things but Sungwo just stays positive as he wants to build his network there.

Meanwhile, Junghyun calls Hareum at lunch. Hareum is already in campus. After the meeting and she goes to the canteen to wait for Minhyun there. They will go home together. Suddenly Junghyun calls her and she’s surprised by his call. Even though it’s not the first time he’s called her since that, it’s still surprising for her. She startled just by seeing his name and with the third ring, she picks it up. “Yeah?” she says, a bit nervous.

“So, how’s it going for the MT?” Junghyun asks. He’s sipping his coffee in the office pantry and sits on the chair in there.

“Wow, you suddenly ask me,” she’s still surprised with his questions also. It looks like he tries to care for her and somehow it shows from how he acts and talks to her.

“Why? Is it forbidden?” he says and smirks that she can imagine. Hareum just stays silent. She takes a seat on the bench near her. “I want to ask because I want to know,” and it flutters her.

“Why do you want to know?” even though she knows when she asks that she just becomes more nervous, she still does it.

“Should I tell you the reason?” he says. A smile comes out from his face and his colleague comes into the pantry. He’s startled and clears his throat, maintains his expression so that his colleague won’t notice. Junghyun then, goes outside to the rooftop where there is a little garden for the workers to hang out for a while.

“No, thanks,” Hareum refuses right away and she’s still nervous. She gets into the canteen and takes her seat right away.

“I think I should say it to you,” Junghyun says teasing her and she just clicks her tongue in her nervousness. She doesn’t know what to say after this. “Well, have fun and contact me while you can,” Junghyun says.

“Yeah,” she answers in a low voice and Junghyun chuckles. He can hear her voice clearly.

“I bet you won’t contact me first, so I’ll contact you while I’m free,” and it makes her heart fluttered. If he keeps acting like this, she might not be able to control her emotions well.

…

“We’re not taking basketball as an easy game,” Seunghoon gives his evaluation on the evaluation night. He grows serious and it makes the juniors are nervous. He becomes so charismatic and firm that no juniors are brave enough to talk back to him. The seniors (whom are the committee) who are sitting around him are looking to the juniors seriously as well. Earlier, one of the juniors made a mistake but it was enough to make the seniors gave their warnings. Just because he forgot to bring a thing. Chaera grows nervous with the others, but she pays attention well to Seunghoon. “If basketball is easy, we’re not here,” Seunghoon says, pointing his friends whom are sitting with him. “If you guys think basketball is easy, just for show off and all that, you better go home now. We don’t need undisciplined teammates,” and his words are piercing so much that the juniors feel like they’re the one. “Tomorrow, we still keep practicing and I don’t want to see tardiness and I don’t want to hear any reasons. Tomorrow at 6am, clear?”

“Yes,” the juniors answer politely and Seunghoon nods. One of the senior dismisses the evaluation and they go back to their own rooms. Neither of the juniors is brave enough to talk behind the seniors back. They quietly go back. The seniors already have their plans for tomorrow which will be the last night.

Dowoon and his band are practicing for songs, Sungwoo’s band as well. They have a quite free schedule ahead and at night they’re just having fun with games and songs game. In here, they know pretty well who’s the airhead, the clumsy one, the fun one. Joining this kind of activity makes you know the new sides of others, some brings a surprise. The more they seem to fit in to the club, the more they know each personality. It’s kind of fun, it’s kind of bad as well. They know who wants to stand out, they know who really wants to play in the band. Dowoon realizes that all the members in his band wants to stand out, the psychology war is not a joke, so he just does his best as their drummer but he won’t let them fool him.

Meanwhile, Sungwoo is in the band to have fun, but he sure wants to show off his skill as well. Mostly girls fall easily with the drummer, that’s what he heard. Plus he heard that girls think drummer is cool. He quickly sets up his pace, thinking that he joins this is not about girls, but because he wants to improve his drumming skills.

And the next day, Hareum and Minhyun are leaving for the MT. The house is so quiet and Mrs. Kang is all alone on for two days. Her husband and Haneul are working, so what she can do is watching cooking shows and going outside, talking with the neighbors. She has many things she wants to do. She takes it as her free time. It’s her chance to do what she can’t do. Hareum said to her as well before she left, “It’s your free time, mom. I hope you use it well,” and her daughter was right.

She talks with the boarders’ parents, tells them how they are, makes sure that the boarders are fine without any problem. Then, she goes outside to the traditional market. Mrs. Kang likes to travel and while she’s still healthy, she wants to explore places she wants to go.

The debating club holds membership training just like a camping trip, they hold it in a camping area. The choir club holds the training in the mountain, but it’s different with the basketball club. The choir club travels to Yeongsan Alps and practices.

It’s the second day of the basketball club training and they already ran in the mountain for yesterday, and they ran for another lap into the mountain this morning. The committee woke them up like crazy with the alarm sound and they have no choice but to wake up. If they didn’t, they might get into punishment again. They don’t know how the schedule is tonight, but Chaera expects something big is happening.

Seunghoon brings the members into last evaluation for the day. He’s now showing his smile and sending his claps for the committee and the members whom are joining and executing the training so well. “I’m  sorry if I was too crazy these days,” he says and chuckles and the members are just laughing a little. Meanwhile the committee is laughing. “Anyway, it’s one of my ways to discipline you guys. Because I, well, not just me but I believe most of the members here experienced the same thing being a basketball player or such,” he continues and they just nod. The atmosphere is so quiet and Chaera that some of the committee members are heading out as they start leaving his sides and the sound of the door opened is clear. She notices that Seunghoon is glancing at the rest of the committee members behind. They must be planning something.

He continues. “Alright,” he says. “For our last activity, we already prepared papers,” and one of the committee brings a small bowl that filled with small folded papers. The participants grow nervous, curious as they pay attention to him and to that small transparent bowl in his hand. “I need you to choose,” and he starts moving to them, one by one as they choose their papers. What are they going to do with this? Chaera wonders. When Seunghoon is in front of her, she keeps her expression natural and tries to observe his expression. He smiles and says, “It’s not a big deal, so don’t be nervous,” he says. Chaera is flustered because it was just like he read her minds but he just says it to put everybody calm.

Everybody already takes a number with them. “Seniors are joining too?” one of the participant asks and they all look to Seunghoon. He gives them an interesting smile and nods. They nod but they didn’t expect that seniors slash committee members are joining into this activity as well. It makes them blurry about what they might do next.

“Alright, show your numbers and make a group with it,” Seunghoon tells them and they look at each other. They start talking their numbers, finding pairs and Chaera notices that they are mostly in pairs or three people in one group. To her, it seems strange that it’s just two people in it. No way… she takes a guess. “Number 18?” Seunghoon raises his hand and says.

18? Chaera looks at her paper and widens her eyes. “Here!” a senior responds to Seunghoon, a female senior named Hyejung from the model department. One of the tall basketball players in women’s team. “Seunghoon-a!” she walks to him excitingly with her happy face. She’s in her senior year, older than Seunghoon and a captain of the women’s basketball team. Why do I have to be with them? Chaera is flustered to be with two upperclassmen and she finds it hard to communicate with people older than her. It brings her burden, but she can’t avoid this moment. It will be strange if she’s suddenly sick or blends into other group, they will check her number.

Before Seunghoon or the other committee checking if the group is all complete or not, Chaera makes up her mind and walks to them. “Hello,” she greets them politely and both of them smile.

“Oh, Chaera-ya!” Hyejung greets her happily