Chapter Text
"Gather around, everyone. It’s meeting time."
The loud and clear voice of the Student Council President echoed through the small room, but no one seemed to care enough to respond. Seeing this, Minji, feeling completely ignored, furrowed her eyebrows in frustration.
She threw the file folder on the table, causing the other three to hastily crawl back. Who knew when that chunky folder would hit one of their heads?
"Now, shall we start?" She flashed them a satisfied grin, yet that short-lived smile was quickly replaced by her iconic frown upon seeing all the documents. What a headache...
"Uhm...In the new semester, someone has requested we grant them an allowance for their Those Who Like To Collect Idol Cards Club."
"Woah, what with that freaking long name?" Hanni, the Vice President, scrunched her face in surprise.
Hyein raised her bank account for everyone to see. "Ah yes, I have permitted it. Although I'm pretty sure they will use that money to... you know, buy more idol cards, but whatever."
"That's rich coming from you."
"Money rules. What can I say?" Look at what the child of a millionaire has to say.
"Right right. Up next, we have...random complaints, pointless events, and permissions to open new clubs. As if our school doesn't have enough clubs already! What are these nonsenses??"
Among all those meaningless requests, one stood out to the President like a sore thumb. 'Appearance of weird noises in the flower garden behind the school.'
"They want us to take a look."
She frowned at the negligent scribble on the paper. She knew all too well that this was the school's problem to deal with, and they thought that pushing everything onto the Student Council was somehow a great idea. How annoying.
"Adults are so ignorant."
Hanni snickered, the irony clearly in her voice. "The Principal said it already."
"What?"
"After all, this school will close in a year or two, and as the Student Council, we only need to do the bare minimum of our responsibility."
The whole room chanted in unison, loud and clear, as if it were a sacred statement. The frown on Minji's eyebrows was more visible than ever.
"If only you guys were this united any other time."
"Excuse you?? Alright, I'm not going!" Hanni clenched her teeth as she yelled out loud. Minji was no longer new to her putting on a sulky act in order to play truant. She couldn't care less. Instead, she turned her head to look at her two juniors.
Jihye put her hands together to apologize. "I want to help, I really do. Unfortunately, I have volunteer work right afterward."
"And I have club activity." Hyein was also busy that day.
Well, of course. It was Thursday afternoon, the most packed time of the week for everyone, for some odd reason. Minji also intended to head home early to watch her favorite idol's show and cartoon, but it seemed that she would have to wait for another time.
Without any other choice, Minji had to get the job done alone. "It's fine. I'm free anyways," She stood up and step by step, went out of the cramped, stifling room.
Located in the most isolated part of an old high school, there existed a garden that had been abandoned for a long time. Minji once wandered into this place back in her first year. To describe it based on her fuzzy memory, would the word 'dreary' be enough? She thought of how funny it was 'cause if there wasn't any weird noise coming from here, this place might as well have fallen into oblivion already.
At that time, it was Fall, when leaves of red maple trees would slowly but surely fall off and cover the whole schoolyard. And yet, the route that led into that garden was somehow weirdly empty, as if those red leaves had never landed here. Or maybe...
"Did someone sweep away the leaves?" It sounded ridiculous, although the former option wasn't any better. Even Minji herself doubted her own speculation.
As she rotated her eyes, she wondered who would put their effort into cleaning up this dreary place.
Would there really be such a person?
It wasn't dreary, but it also wasn't new-looking either; that would be a stretch. And yet, clearly, this garden had been attentively cared for, little by little. Wild grasses that used to be overgrown everywhere were all plucked. Withered plants, due to lack of proper care, were also replaced by newly grown sprouts. And the humongous rock that tripped her foot two years ago, right where she was standing right now, could no longer be found.
Minji was so overwhelmed by the differences that she didn't realize that someone was gazing at her the same way she looked at this garden.
"The...Student Council President?"
The unfamiliar voice made Minji turn her head to look at the girl who just called her name.
"You are..."
Kang Haerin.
She recognized this young girl. She was in the same class as Hyein - a quiet classmate with outstanding academic performance. Spotting Haerin's lonely silhouette a few times was enough for her to unconsciously imprint it into her mind. Not that she was interested or anything, as one could simply call it curiosity. When a day of Kim Minji was always about being surrounded by people, she found herself wondering how an ordinary life differed from hers.
Was that a stereotypical thought to have? Maybe. A string of thoughts that she would only keep to herself, like countless other thoughts of hers.
Haerin's half-witter face was now displaying a baffled expression, and those big round cat eyes of hers were staring at Minji non-stop as if waiting for the President girl to say something, anything. That sharp gaze somehow was able to pierce through Minji, making her stomach twitch to the point she couldn't utter a single word. Can she read her mind?
Only when she spotted the broomstick that Haerin was holding in her hand could Minji clear her voice and mutter out a question.
"Did you fix the garden?"
"Y-yes."
"Anyone else helped you with it?"
"There isn't."
So all the noise must also be hers doing.
"Kid, do you know that tempering with the school's facility might get you in trouble?"
"Ah... I'm sorry..." She quickly lowered her head in response to Minji's threat. Noticing the stutter in her voice, Minji's mind suddenly wavered. She turned her gaze away to avoid the little girl's guilty expression, but once again, she was trapped in the scenery of this garden and the fact that it was Haerin who restored it to its current state.
In her vague imagination, the tiny girl who could be blown away by a small wind, in reality, could actually be capable of planting trees and digging dirt. Where was the tidy, reserved look of every day? Her uniform was now smeared with dirt and mud. Seeing the messy hair on her bangs and the sweat that was dripping down her forehead, Minji couldn't help but twitch her eyebrows a bit. But it was Fall, though?
She bit her lip out of frustration.
"However...I won't tell the school, so don't worry about it. Not like they care anyways"
Haerin's eyes shined brightly beyond hearing her words. She surprisingly looked at her. "Really? Thank you so much, President!"
Minji scratched her head. "Minji is fine. No need to be so formal."
"Minji-unnie?"
In a split second, she had thought that Haerin's voice when calling her name was strangely soothing. In another split second, she suddenly felt embarrassed for having such a thought like that. "Yes, Minji-unnie..."
"Hehe, I got it."
Even without saying, Minji did clearly notice how the younger girl's small shoulders loosened up bit by bit, even if that slight movement wasn't worth mentioning. It made her curiosity rile up once again. Was she afraid of being punished, or...
"Why did you rebuild the garden in the first place?"
Her lips parted faintly but shut tight right after that. This time, it was Haerin who traversed her gaze into the unknown to look for an answer to such questions.
Minji patiently watched her face as she was lost in deep thought. What seemed like just a random question was in fact so much deeper for both of them.
Being a student here, Haerin must know better than anybody else that this endearing school will eventually turn into a wasteland shortly. Time would fly in a blink, and before she knew it, she would no longer be here. Then why would anyone dare to put their heart and soul into something that is already on the verge of collapsing?
After a moment, the younger girl managed to look straight into her eyes. She spoke with a tint of sorrowfulness on her smile. "Because being able to do something for this place at the last moments is somewhat enough, right?"
Minji felt as if she could pick up the hint of emotion lingering in that nonchalant voice. It wasn't just any sugar-coated, general answer to make herself look nice. It was Haerin's genuine thought.
How...endearing.
She continued. "You understand it, right? You and your dedication to the Student Council and to this school."
Before the genius brain of Kim Minji could comprehend everything that just happened, her mouth had already made its own move.
"Then can I lend you a helping hand?"