“How were we?”

They had a break after a round of practice. Maru asked that question to Miso and Ganghwan who were sitting in front of the window, watching them practice. They didn’t have perfect control over their lines, some people burst out laughing, and it was far from perfect, but this was their first run that they showed to others. He wanted to hear their honest opinions.

“You guys need a lot of practice. It’s far from perfect. Especially the first years. Confidence is good and all, but skill is something different to confidence. Are you sure that you’re putting all your effort?”

“Honestly speaking, it’s not as hot as it was last year.”

“You were never hot though.”

“That’s true,” Maru replied with a smile.

Last year, they had an objective that was to win the nation-wide competition. In the first place, Miso had the students practice with the competition in mind, so the atmosphere was very competitive and practice was arduous.

However, this year was different. The first problem was the lack of practice space. As their practice space had become smaller, there was a limit to their training. The instructor in charge, Suyeon, was also different from Miso in regards to the way they handled things. Suyeon did not care about the achievements. To her, being an instructor was just a job that Junmin gave her. She never had the ambition to recreate the past glory like how Miso did. Lastly, the members of the club also had their own circumstances, leading to lack of practice.

“It’ll be good if we...