The sun was shining, the birds were singing and Eastwood High School students were  everywhere, out and about stopping by at the plethora of different booths. Hyosung herself was strolling around, looking for places to stop at. It was the time of the year that the school’s huge variety of clubs were out and advertising with posters, powerpoint presentations and other creative ways for interested students.
She panned the setting and found a boy and a girl making amends to a tilted sign that read, “Welcome to Eastwood High School’s club fair!” To the right was a huge crowd bustling about around a sign that read “Dance Squad applications here!” That club tended to be the one of the most popular activities each and every year. Slowly, she made her way toward it without any real intention of joining it.
When she reached it, a pair of arms wrapped around her. “Hyosung!” she turned her head and found Ji Eun beaming at her. “You’re here! I felt as if those last 3 periods without you were like hell.”
“Really Ji Eun? I’m not that contributing to your life’s happiness, am I?”
“Of course you are!” she pinched her cheek making Hyosung flinch away.
“You make me feel like a little kid!”
“Because you’re so cute!” Ji Eun said in a chipper voice. She seemed really buoyant today.
“You must be really excited huh?” Hyosung asked her friend in an amused way. Honestly, she was looking forward to this fair as well so it helped that her friend was in the mood too.
“Yeah!” Okay, let’s go join some clubs!” she blurted out, clearly elated for what laid ahead of them, while making a grab for Hyosung’s hand. Together, the two friends started to explore the courtyard of the school in search of clubs to join.
“Let’s go to dance squad’s booth first since it’s close by,” Ji Eun suggested.
“Sure,” Hyosung smiled. “You’re planning on joining it?”
“Yeah! That’s why I’m going silly!” Ji Eun said, dragging her friend toward the booth. There was a long line of students but they still managed to wait it out until they arrived at the clipboard where they could sign. Ji Eun signed without any hesitation while her friend watched her with nothing else to do.
When she was done, she handed the pen to Hyosung, “Here you go!” smiling widely.
“Umm... I’m not signing,” Hyosung rejected the offer.
“What?! Why not?” Ji Eun said with slumped shoulders.
“It’s just not my thing.... I don’t really feel like joining it.”
“Oh come on! Please, for me! You don’t expect me to go to it alone now do you?”
“I’m sorry... I’ll doubt I’ll even pass the tryouts!” Hyosung dismissed the thought of her being in such a club quickly. She couldn’t never imagine herself being up on stage with the eyes of many on her from the crowd down below while she danced her off. If self consciousness of her body played such a big factor in her everyday life, how would she ever pull off dancing in front of an audience. She shook her head at the thought.
“Okay...” Ji Eun gave in, aware of the fact that there were waiting students behind the two who were starting to get annoyed with them holding up the line.
They quickly got out of there and started walking again. Hyosung felt a tremendous amount of guilt flow through her when she caught sight of Jieun’s glum face. She apologized again and her friend’s down expression softened a bit. Soon, the two forgot about the earlier dilemma and started chatting again like a happy couple, skipping around while buying food and drinks here and there. The booths with free food seemed to be the ones with a higher attraction rate by the students, the two observed, especially with the fact that it was working on them as well too. They were stuffing themselves with yummy cookies, cotton candy and cupcakes, enjoying it all but not joining most of the clubs. Hyosung just couldn’t seem to find any clubs that fit her interests and rather felt like a freeloader because of how she walked away with food in without signing any papers.
“Uh Hyosung... I have to go soon, my mom just sent me a text message,” Ji Eun turned to her friend with sorry eyes.
“Oh...” Hyosung replied, her eyes downcast as she looked to the floor, taking a of her chocolate lollipop. She felt like such a failure, with all the time that had passed and not being able to find a single club that she felt as if she would enjoy.
“Okay... I’ll try to make it quick,” Hyosung stated, determined to find at least one club that day.
“Okay! We can do this. I’ll stop searching for my interests and we’ll go look for something you like instead,” she nudged Hyosung as they started walking again.
“You sure? Don’t you want to check out  anything else?”
“I’m sure! It’s getting late too. Besides, I already signed up for Dance Squad, drama club, cheerleading, music and gymnastics. Anymore and I’ll be under deep water with my grades!” she said, making Hyosung feel better and escorted her as they made their way through the lightening crowd.
Suddenly, the words, “Math Team” engraved on a banner above her in a nearby booth caught Hyosung’s eye. “Hey, can we go there?” she asked.
“Sure,” Ji Eun agreed with a smile. Hyosung wanted to start slow, knowing that if she took on something too drastic such as cheerleading, it would be even harder to grow out of her shell.
They made their way towards it, grateful for the short line making Hyosung feel a bit resentment towards the school’s students. How come there aren’t as many students bomboarding the math team site? Her passion for math was getting in the way of her thinking, making her confused as to why the sign up sheet for math was only half full when she arrived at the front of the table top. She made a quick skim through the description of the club before scribbling down her name on number 14 of the sheet. There was no need to be recklessly hasty with the fact that there were only two people waiting behind her who seemed friendly enough and had the company of each other.
When she was done, she extended the pen out to Ji Eun, “Want to join?” who returned her with an awkward rejecting look.
“Uh... Math’s not my thing,” she explained, with a guilty look. “I’m sure I’d bring you down during math competitions and stuff like that so for the good of the team, I’ll not join!” she added on, making Hyosung laugh.
“It’s okay. We’re not even half way even with me not joining any of the clubs you joined. I feel like I owe you a huge debt or something!”
“Naah!” Ji Eun hugged her friend. “It’s funny how two friends whose interests differ so much can be such close friends. We’re meant to be,” she said with beaming eyes.
“Hey! Anyone hearing this part of the conversation will think we’re …” she wasn’t able to finish her sentence when a sudden honk of a car interrupted their talking, making the two look up.
“Omo! That’s my mom. I have to go Hyosung, I’m sorry!” she said, started to run off towards it. “See you at school tomorrow!” she said with one last look before running off, leaving Hyosung alone.
Hyosung watched her friend in disappointment as she got into the car and waved at her through the window before the car started to drive off. She was hoping to join a few more clubs than just this before going home today, not wanting to delay it any longer.
“Aww, your buddy left you?” the girl with glasses who had just finished signing the math team’s sign up sheet as number 15 questioned, standing before her. She had a really cute hairstyle that Hyosung herself loved using, with her hair out and a small braid on one side and a cute, strawberry clip to go with it.
“Yeah... her mom came to pick her up.”
“Ooh, I see,” she looked thoughtful.
The boy that she had been talking with before when they were both waiting in line behind her looked up. He saw the two girls talking and decided to chip in. “Are you going to join any more clubs?” he asked with what seemed like good intentions in his eyes making Hyosung feel comfortable.
“Yeah... I guess I’ll stay around a little longer and see if there’s anything I like.”
“Really?!” the girl exclaimed with lighted up eyes. “We’re still looking around too!”
Getting to the point, the boy next to her proposed, “Want to join us?”
“Wow, really? You’d be okay with me joining you?” Hyosung didn’t want to be a nuisance to the two of them.
“Yeah, of course! After all, we’re going to be math team teammates aren’t we? So we might as well get to know each other,” the girl chipped up, gesturing to the math team sign up sheet making Hyosung feel better about the whole joining them plan.
“So are you going to join us?” the boy repeated, staring into her eyes curiously while awaiting her response.
They already had a connection by both joining math team so why not walk around with them as well? There was no law that was stopping them. Abandoning her anti-socializing theme she had stuck with so well for the past few years, she nodded causing a smile to flicker on the boy’s face which Hyosung found cute and the girl to jump up in excitement while saying, “Yay!” making her feel flattered.
“Well, what are we waiting for? Kaja!” the boy gestured at the two girls who were smiling at each other. He had already started walking so the two hustled to get caught up, each on one side of him.
Walking side by side, they drifted through the crowds, getting to know each other better while occasionally pointing out extracurricular activities that all three felt would be interesting for each of them. Hyosung couldn’t stop smiling the whole time. She was glad that she had partnered up with people who seemed so alike to her. Maybe it wasn’t so bad that Ji Eun had left early... However, throughout the whole time, she couldn’t help but notice that Lee Kikwang had been nowhere in sight during the whole time.