It was why she was there that afternoon. 

Dahyun placed her bag on one of the front row seats in the small theatre. Then, she wound her way up onto the stage and gingerly sat around the jagged circle the others had carelessly formed on the floor. It was noticeably sparse but that was hardly unexpected. Dahyun counted heads. Five: including her and two new nervous faces she had never seen before. Freshmen, she assumed. Like how she assumed that no one else would be showing up. Because it had been the same last year.

Arguably, that was not a good measure considering just how often she had skipped the club meetings last year.

Dahyun could not blame the two familiar faces who were looking at her in muted bewilderment.

“Nice to see you again. Mina, right?” Dahyun angled her body to the left to greet the one nearer to her in hope to break the ice.

She nodded then said, “I'm sorry...I never got your name.”

Dahyun had never bothered to be involved with the club, never mind cared to be friendly with the club members.

“I'm Dahyun," she offered, now.

Dahyun sensed the quiet attention of those in the room shifting onto the both of them. She carefully turned to face forward; looking at them in turns, “Hi," she waved at them, "I'm a second year in journalism. Why don’t we go around introducing ourselves?” Dahyun turned to Mina and wordlessly encouraged her to start.

Dahyun breathed when she started, “I’m Myoui Mina. A third-year majoring in psychology,” then softer, “What about you?” She asked the next girl to her left.

“Hi?” One of the newer faces said unsurely, “My name is Sohye. We’re friends,” She politely indicated to the other new girl next to her.

“Hi,” The other girl supplied at Sohye’s introduction of her, “My name's also Mina. Kang Mina," She clarified, "We’re freshmen in engineering. It’s nice meeting all of you,” She ended with a smile.

“That’s cute! We have two Minas. I’m Sujeong, by the way. I’m in business. Also, a third-year like our president here,” she pointed to Myoui Mina as she said.

Dahyun looked at Mina in surprise. She did not look like the type to be in a leader position. The thought did not mean to be a disservice to her. It was just that. A thought.

Myoui Mina waved her hand dismissively, a shy gesture at her friend’s bold statement, “Oh no. This doesn’t really count. It’s not even a proper club.”

Dahyun flinched at the unthinking words but could not find fault in the statement because it was true. It was known as the club for slacking and no one took it seriously. Dahyun could almost see how things would unfurl now. A script from a classic play would be given to them. Dahyun had heard that the same play was used every year. If that were true...Romeo and Juliet, again it would seem. Then, the haphazard assignment of the characters would follow. And that would be it. For the week at least. Although, they did say the room could be used to practice for the first reading that would be on the following week. Dahyun doubted anyone would have taken the club seriously even if they had wanted to. Not with a petite girl playing Romeo. Maybe, she was being mean. And it might have been that the girl was a superb actress who could play her part perfectly. But she was not and that was that. Dahyun was planning to stay this year and she did not want things to unfurl like its repeats of cyclical history.

And before it could, she said, “I want to do something different.”

“What do you mean? A different piece?” Myoui Mina asked politely.

“Not just that… I’m writing something. I want to hold an audition for the parts. Rehearsals. Lights and everything else. I want a proper production."

 “Is that possible? We don't have a budget,” Sujeong said.

“I can find a way. Sponsors or fundraising," Dahyun answered.

“Do we have time for that?” Sujeong asked, again.

“A year is a long time. I can do the planning,” Dahyun said.

“Even if that is true…you would need people for this to work,” Sujeong said, "But I wasn't expecting this production when I was planning for the year. I made other commitments and I can't see myself doing this. I'm afraid that I'll spread myself too thin. How about you Mina?"

"Honestly..." Mina, the president started softly, "It's the same for me. I'm with a dance team and this year I'm competitive. Most days of the week I'm blocked training with them. Maybe, we should do things like how it has always been here?

So many questions…Dahyun had expected them. But she saw the real hesitance behind these excuses. Who was she, really? A non-absentee member suddenly stepping in to take interest in a dying club? Dahyun was prepared for them to say no. But hearing them...she did not actually want to hear them.

“Don’t say no before I could even show you that it’ll work.”

There was a pause. Dahyun had played how this would play out in her head countless of times. Yet, when in the actual situation her thoughts became errantly elusive, and her words were less of what she had wanted them to be.

“Will you show us what you have?”

“I will,” Dahyun said, wearing the bravado like a shield, “But not now. When I’m done.”

“When will that be?”

“Soon,” she said stubbornly. She refused to give anything definite. Because she could not trust that things would not go wrong. Her confidence had been battered down to a weird shape, “Let me take charge of the play this year. I’ll manage.”

“And if you don’t?” Mina pressed.

“Then we’ve got nothing to lose. You said it yourself: this isn’t even a real club,” Dahyun said even as her heart wavered from going against the direction of the ongoing storm. With renewed efforts, she planted her feet even more firmly, “This is just something that I really want to do.”

There was a pause. Dahyun waited and the silence burgeoned with clear hesitation. She forced herself to sit still, still her hands from tracing useless patterns on the ground, steal away the expectation from her face and steel her heart from rejection.

“Okay,” Mina, the president said finally. The words confused her for a moment. She had been prepared for another rejection that she did not quite know how to react to the approval.

“Okay,” Dahyun let out the breath she had not realised she held.

“Okay,” she said again, louder.