26 Go home club

After the eventful Friday with Hechan and Lee, the weekend passed peacefully at home and I was back in school on Monday. As soon as I entered the classroom, Ajin saw me and came over to greet me.

"Good morning, Jenn"

"Good morning, Ajin! How are you?"

"I'm really sorry, I have to apologize to you"

"Huh? What happened? Where's this coming from?"

"You know… you gave me the club application form on Friday afternoon and I was supposed to bring it to the club supervisor teacher before school's over, but… I'm really sorry"

"What is it?"

"I forgot to hand it in…"

"Wait-. You just forgot?"

"Yes, I'm really sorry, Jenn"

"So does it mean I can't join ANY clubs now?"

"That is the case, yes…"

Aw, man. Sure, I said I will join track and field just in the heat of the moment and also to some extent out of spite for Hechan, but I DID indeed want to join at least some kind of club to finally experience parts of high school life that I could not enjoy previously.

"Well, that's a real bummer"

"I don't know how to make it up to you. I'm just really sorry…"

Then I heard a boy shout into our classroom from outside

"Jenn! Come out!"

I looked over and it was Captain Lee again. Hechan was in his seat behind mine but did not butt in this time, and just let out a discontented tssk.

I walked over to Lee and Ajin followed me closely from behind.

"Jenn, you said you will join the track and field club, but I learned today you didn't. Did you change your mind?"

I looked over at Ajin. She had her eyes cast down and looked like a poor puppy. Welp, I guess I'll just take this one myself.

"Erm, yeah, sorry. I thought about it again and I really don't suit joining a sports club"

Ajin looked at me a little surprised.

"But those legs, Jenn! Your legs!"

"Please, captain, let's not go on about my legs again"

Lee then took a deep breath and let out a big sigh.

"Look, if you really did not want to join, then I guess I'll just have to respect and accept that. But remember you will always be welcome. It's too late for the autumn event now since you are not registered, but there will also be competitions in spring. Well, I'm graduating though. It's really unfortunate we couldn't make it work this time"

"I'm sorry, captain"

"Well, you can still come over for training sometimes if you wish. I'll see you around"

Lee clearly looked disappointed but compared to his desperation last Friday he looked like he was resigned to reality now. He did not look bitter or angry though, just genuinely thinking it was a pity that what he considered my talent was just going to be wasted.

After Lee walked away Ajin took my hand and held it with both hands. Her hands were very warm and I felt my heart racing a bit. I'm a girl now but well, this is the first time I ever hold hands with a girl like this.

"Thank you, Jenn. You didn't mention it was my fault"

"Ah, don't worry. I wasn't that up for joining track and field anyway. It's just that Captain Lee was too persistent for me to reject"

"If you told him it was my fault, I'm sure he'd have hated me. So… Thank you"

"No worries, now we are in the same club, eh?"

"What do you mean?"

"We are in the go-home club together, right?"

Ajin let out a small laugh while covering her mouth with one hand.

"Heh, I guess you are right. Thank you for everything, Jenn"

"No, I thank you, Ajin. You helped me with lots of things since I came here"

Ajin just responded with a warm smile and that made me melt a little.

At one point I was bitter at her that she did not help me when I was getting bullied before, but now that I've spent some more time as Jenn and had Ajin help me out on many occasions recently I grew quite fond of her. Just like Jihee, she'd be a good friend, and I'm happy that I'm finally starting to make friends in my high school life.