Blue Summer

Chapter 4: The School Festival

The promise was hyped, but Misao had to put her trust. It was a heavy bet that if she lost, she would be in a great deal of trouble in school. But on the other side she wanted to give Ibuki a chance to prove his ability. She was on a thin line and held on with pronounced force. As it is, such force requires energy, so much so, she had to give up on her sleep for it. In the morning, a damp sunny one, she arrived at Ibuki's house at the time he had proposed. She stood erect at the forepart of Ibuki's house, which was clamped between two large buildings, turning it into a suffocating chamber of devilry.

Nevertheless, Ibuki's family endured such conditions in the heat of Incheon. Misao momentarily lost her view of the house as she pondered about the rest of the street. Ibuki called her out from behind. He was holding a bag, and Misao gave a sigh of relief on it. He rushed to her and handed her the bag. Ibuki asked her to come into his house, but she refused and headed back home to leave for school.

Before leaving for school, she opened the bag to see the costumes. They were neatly placed and alluring. Misao smiled, knowing Ibuki had given his best to make the costumes, and they were worthy of appreciation. Thereafter, she immediately left for school.

The whole campus was decorated for the festival with bright colours. Students wore their specific club uniforms and set up their stalls as part of the club fair included in the school festival. Misao turned about only to find in the shadows of two oaks, nearly invisible, Yunho and the stall for the art club. Disappointment struck Misao. She approached the stall with a dejected face, "Yunho, how is the stall coming?"

Yunho greeted her and, pouting in disappointment, said, "We need more people to work with. With only two of us, especially with you as the class president, this stall is more like a discarded commodity of this school."

Misao heaved and placed the costumes on the table next to her, "Even my one-week time is also up. Where am I to find members for this club? How come no one in this entire school is interested in art? That is not even realistically possible. It should at least be the third most popular in the school."

Yunho nodded his head slowly. "These are the costumes?" he asked.

Misao nodded, "Yes."

But even with the costumes ready, they weren't cheered. They looked at each other with discontent and sighed. Eventually, citing the value of time, Misao took her leave to go to meet the history club for the last rehearsal of the play before the final show.

It was all chaos in the room as the club had ensued a very serious debate over Korea's future. Opinions of various kinds were thrown in the air amongst loud shouts and yells. Such a scene wouldn't even take place amongst political members making a decision. Misao was distraught at the sight of it. It seemed that given their county's future, the club had lost sight of their immediate future in the school festival.

Finally, Misao gave in and yelled to silence the room. The club turned to her and greeted her. She cleared her throat and said, "Alright, you can resume your very important debate after the festival is over, but right now, we need to do the last rehearsal of the play."

The club nodded unanimously and began the rehearsal. In the meantime, Youra and Joon-Woo came in to check on the preparations. They stood at the door of the room to see how the play was to be. The final show was six hours away, and the play was thirty minutes long. But Misao also had to do other things. She was to be at the forefront of the class presentation, given she was the class president. In addition to that, she had to oversee a few of the stalls of the clubs she was part of.

Ibuki also passed by the practice room and saw the members wear his made costumes. He was happy. He could see everyone was fascinated by his costumes, and he felt appreciated. He came and stood by the door, just a step behind Youra and Joon-Woo.