Chapter 16
The most urgent part of the recruitment process is over.
Now that I’ve reached the minimum requirement of four members, all that’s left is to get the agreement forms from the other clubs.
I plan to use your upcoming club visits to get them as efficiently as possible.
“……but is it really possible to get 3 forms today?”
Kim Se-ah, one of the people in my group, speaks up cautiously before we leave for the club tour.
“From what you said, it sounds like getting forms isn’t easy, so is there anything I can do to help?”
It’s understandable that Kim Se-ah would think that way. After all, no one had ever gotten three forms in one day at Seoul Hero Academy. However, I had an ability that set me apart from the rest of the students.
I was a player in this game, and my body was Eugene Han Corleone.
With these two conditions, it was quite possible to obtain three agreement forms in a single day.
“If the boss is willing to go this far, let’s just wait and see. He’ll take care of it, right?”
As if sensing the lingering worry in Se-ah’s voice, Jin-woo said and smiled cheekily. He’s such a perceptive guy.
Kim Se-ah’s expression brightened a little.
“Yes!”
“Okay, I’ll check it again this time, and then we’ll get to…….”
I checked my wristwatch, and the hour and minute hands were pointing to 8:59. First period at the academy, exploring the clubs, was about to start.
I stood up, heard the bell ring, and turned to my club members.
“Let’s go.”
“Okay, show us what you got, boss!”
“We only need to stay in the back, right?”
“Come on, let’s see how our club president does things.”
Blending in with the rest of my classmates as they began to head out of the classroom to explore, I headed straight for the first club I had marked.
“Where do we go first? I don’t know the way around the Academy yet…….”
Kim Se-ah, who was following behind us like a duckling following its mother, gently asked me a question.
“The first place to go is the board game club. It’s a bronze-ranked club in the basement of the club hall.”
“Board game…… club?”
“Yes, it’s a club that’s not very popular because board games are a minor category. It’s not too far away, so we’ll be there in no time.”
“It’s good that it’s close. Oh, is that the place?”
The building was too big to be called a hall and the other kids were speechless at the sheer size of the place, as if they were looking at a department store.
“This is the club hall. Most of the clubs in the Academy are housed in this building.”
“This, this is the building where all the clubs are housed?”
“Wow, it’s really big. Boss, are we going to have a club there too?”
“It’s not like …….”
Suddenly, Kim Young-jae looked at me and asked if something was wrong.
“By the way, aren’t there too few people near the hall for the club tour time?”
“Usually they set up booths to attract new students, so most of them will be in the sports field or the auditorium.”
“Then shouldn’t we go there?”
Kim Se-ah asks after hearing that most of the clubs will be elsewhere.
“The board game club doesn’t advertise this time of year. They have a lot of clubs to compete with, so they usually recruit new students who didn’t get into other clubs.”
“Oooh, boss, you know your stuff, don’t you?”
“I’ve done my research on the club.”
The kids’ expressions change drastically as we enter the hall and head to the basement.
“It’s much darker than the first floor.”
Young-jae mumbles as he looks around.
As soon as they enter the basement, they realize that the atmosphere is different from the brightly lit first floor.
There are flickering lights and a stale underground smell. There was also trash in every corner of the hallway, as if it wasn’t being cleaned.
It was the kind of scene that would make someone wonder if this was Harlem.
“The basement is used by lower-class clubs, so it’s inevitable that it would be in poor condition.”
Kim Young-jae nodded in agreement at my explanation.
After walking for about four more minutes, we finally arrived in front of a room with a plaque saying “Board Game Club” on it.
“Wow, this place looks really dreary from the entrance.”
“What if they hear you from inside? Shouldn’t you be a little quieter?”
Jin-woo blurted out the words as soon as he stood in front of the entrance.
Kim Young-jae furrowed his brow and said something, and Jin-woo stumbled over to the door.
“Boss, shouldn’t I just open this?”
I nod and Jin-woo pushes the door open. At the same time, the interior of the board game club unfolded before our eyes.
There were countless board games lined up side by side in numerous display cases, reminiscent of a library.
“Ugh, the smell of dust.”
I waved my hand in the air and heard a muffled sound from behind the shelves.
-…… I’ll do it.
-……should be.
-……Isn’t that traditional?
-People…… are supposed to……
-It’s …… because it’s…….
-………?
As I slowly walked toward the epicenter of the noise, I finally saw a group of people huddled behind a huge display case.
Six people were in a circle around what appeared to be a board game and as if sensing our presence, one of them looked up and saw us.
“Huh? Huh…… what’s the big deal…….?”
The man makes eye contact with me and suddenly starts rubbing his eyes. Then he looks at me once more, and then turns away in anger.
“Boo, boo, man, man, man!”
The guy who fell backwards points his finger at us and shouts, and the man with the red glasses looks up and sees us too.
“Huh? What, what, four people?! Four people?!”
The other members of the club stare at us until even the club president is surprised.
“Ji, it’s real! A real person is here!”
“Are you a freshman?”
“Let’s calm down, it could be someone from the club competition!”
The atmosphere becomes chaotic, and the club president is the first to stand up and calm things down.
Slowly, the atmosphere subsides and when the chatter finally dies down completely the president of the board game club looks at me and opens his mouth cautiously.
“By any chance……what grade are you in?”
“First grade.”
“Hee hee hee, he’s a real freshman, what do I do?! What should I do?!”
At the word “freshman”, the president started to panic and jumped up and down.
“President, calm down!”
“Right! Wu, first of all, let’s ask them why they’re here! Maybe they’re not here to join our club! Are they lost or something?”
“That’s right, that’s probably what it is, isn’t it? Oh, okay, I’ll just ask her!”
They were talking so loudly that we could hear them.
The vice president turns around to look at us again.
“Uhhh……are you here to join our club?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
“So is ……so are you really lost?”
“No, I’m looking for the Board Game club.”
At this point, the president’s face turned serious as if he sensed something strange.
“Are you sure you’re looking for us? Why would a freshman come to our club?”
Apparently, he judged me for not joining but I chose to cut to the chase instead of going in circles.
“I’m here to pick up my bronze club agreement.”
“What?”
The air around me turns cold.
“You mean you’re here to get the……agreement form?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“I thought you said you were a freshman?”
” Yes, I told you I’m a freshman.”
“And you want an agreement form?”
“Yes.”
“Puh-huh-!”
At my answer, the president suddenly bursts into laughter.
“Puh-ha! A freshman asking for an agreement form, no way. Are you one of those freshmen running around trying to start a club?”
Chuckling and wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes, the president raises his head and looks at me.
“You, do you know what it means when we give out our club agreement form?”
“Yes, I know it’s kind of like a guarantor. If the clubs that you gave agreement forms to don’t survive for half a semester, then your club will go down with them.”
This was another reason why the Academy’s clubs were not proliferating.
It also meant that the Academy would only issue certificates to those who were recognized by the clubs.
“And you still want my agreement form?”
“Yes.”
“On what basis?”
Came the remark that marked the beginning of the ‘event’.
“I’m seeing you for the first time today, and you’re asking me for an agreement form? Honestly, don’t you think that’s a little too shameless? So────”
The president, who is still sulking in his seat, looks at me and smiles.
“────We’ll play a game.”
There’s an aura about him that’s hard to believe for a man who, just a moment ago, was flustered by the arrival of a freshman.
He’s the president in charge of a club, even if it’s a weak one, which means he has the power to protect it.
“The terms are simple: your friends and the rest of us will play a board game. We’ll play five games, and whoever wins the first three will be the winner. What do you think?”
“Hmm…”
“What? You think that’s too much? But you’re the ones who’ll be disappointed, and we have nothing to lose by not giving you the agreement form, so I think it’s a fair suggestion.”
The president talked in a very relaxed manner and the guys behind him were already having a heated discussion about what game we should play.
Interesting. Let’s play some more.
“You say we get the agreement form if we win, but what happens if we lose?”
“What if you guys lose?”
The corner of the red-rimmed glasses man’s mouth splits open.
“All of you need to join our club.”
So that’s how it goes.
This is one of the ways board game clubs recruit new members: the Dark Board Game.
They’d make bets to get people to join them.
“Of course, if you accept and lose, you can’t say you’re leaving the club, so you have to stay with us for a year. In your second year, we’ll let you leave. How about that?”
Even though he said it like that, it wasn’t a condition I could easily accept.
I knew that the wickedly smiling president and the club members behind him would do whatever it took to introduce me to the joys of board games within a year.
Therefore, I smiled brightly and announced the end of the game.
“──I decline.”
