“So, we really gonna py a video game for club activity?”

  “That sounds fun as heck! The best club!”

  That was the mentality of most didates who came to apply for the Cssmancers club.

  “.......” Kai was dead silent. She handed out the registration forms like a robot and didn’t utter a single word the whole time.

  “Something wrong?” Yuel asked.

  “........” She g him, theuro the registration forms. “No, nothing.” She sighed.

  Yeah, sure. “Nothing”. Yuel rolled his eyes. “You’re disappoihat this is all we got? I admit it’s pretty weak. Ba StormBlitz, we held a big entrance exam and lots of people attended.”

  “That’s not the issue,” Kai said. “Did you notiany girls applied so far?”

  “I believe there weren’t any.”

  “Exactly. Not a single one. Nada. We got like ten applications but not a single one of them was a female.”

  “I see,” Yuel didn’t know what to say. Kai’s prophecy seemed to be on point: very few girls at this age had any i in Cssmancers.

  However, it was too early to draw any statistics from just one sample. Even if boys were more ied in the club on average, surely some girl will eventually show up as long as they tinue drawing people’s attention. But...

  Do I really want to find such a girl? Yuel wondered. As far as he was ed, pig the most capable didates was the entire purpose of going through such a sele process. So, prioritizing a pyer’s gender over their skill went against that belief.

  But, at the same time, he wanted some girls to apply to dismiss Kai’s statement. He wao prove that enough girls had an i in the game. But, why? It had nothing to do with him. He shouldn’t have cared in the slightest. A...

  Why do I keep thinking about Julia? Yuel knotted his brows. Somehow, every time this topic came up, his mind couldn't help but wander back to Julia.

  Acc to Lars, some of his cssmates in grade school didn't like pying Cssmancers with Julia because she was a girl. That undoubtedly stifled her ability to improve at the game. After all, without a supp group to py with, it was difficult to improve or eve motivated enough to py. Evearted off by pying with some of his cssmates, though that story didn't go so well...

  Anyway, having other people to py with was incredibly important when starting out, especially in a team-based game like a MOBA. It was a thousand times harder to be ied in the game when you didn't have any teammates to share yood and bad times with.

  And, Julia didn't have that privilege at first. She only had Lars, who agreed to py with her uhe rest of the boys. But, Lars wasly the sharpest tool in the shed so he couldn’t give Julia much advi how to improve.

  So, it came as no surprise that Julia’s skill was so unpolished when Yuel met her. Back then, Yuel thought she was a terrible pyer who had no idea what she was doing. But, given the kind of stifling enviro she pyed in, it only made sense she struggled to develop as a pyer.

  If Kai's theory was correct, there were many girls like Julia who couldn't get into Cssmancers due to the simir gatekeeping. And, most of them weren't lucky enough to meet a nice goof like Lars or a knowledgeable coach like Yuel. So, these girls never got, and might never get, into Cssmancers even though they could've really ehe game and even reached a high level at it. That was unfortunate.

  Still, it's not my business. It really isn't. Yuel tried to vince himself. But, the thoughts kept creeping back to his mind. Even though it was iive and illogical, a part of him wanted a girl to join the club so she could flourish in a proper petitive enviro. Or. at least, as "petitive" as one could call a tiny club that was tucked away in the basement.

  "Maybe we o do some advertising that’s aimed specifically at girls..." Yuel mumbled without thinking. Oops! He really didn’t want to step into this versation but he did anyway. Darn it...

  "Like what?" Kai asked.

  "I'm not really sure," Yuel said.

  "Well," Luke started. "For starters, it'd sure help if we had an actual girl here to advertise the club."

  "What's that supposed mean?" Kai gave him a look.

  "I mean, look at how ya dressed. Jeans, a T-shirt, and a cap. Anybody would mistake ya for a boy from afar."

  "Yeah, most likely," Kai nodded, probably missing the point.

  "So, ya think this kind of presentation gonna draw any girls? They gonna see a bunch of 'guys' here and hard pass on the whole thing."

  "I'd like to think that those who are serious about the game will e over here regardless."

  "I think you're overestimating grade-schoolers," Luke shrugged. "I knew a bunch of guys who pyed Cssmancers with me on a det level ba grade school. But, during summer break, we didn't get to py mud almost everybody moved on to py the test trending games like Forknite. Actually, I kinda joihem too. I only stayed loyal to Cssmancers because I’ve gathered so much juicy memeing material that it’d be sad to throw it all away."

  "So," Kai crossed her arms. "You're saying there might be girls out there who used to py but lost i by now because of whatever."

  "Yep, both boys and gals. It be like that sometimes. Mancers is a tough game frade-schoolers so these dudes need every little bit of motivation ya give them."

  "You got any specific ideas?"

  "Welp, it's too te now but you should've dressed in something cuter."

  "Cuter?" Kai raised an eyebrow.

  The guy got balls. Yuel gulped. This didn't sound like a versation that was about to go well...

  "Yeah, cuter," Luke said. "Could've worn a skirt or something to give some girly presen here. I bet it'd even draw some boys in, huehue."

  "W-Wha," Kai trembled. "There's no way I'd wear something like that! I'm not here to sell myself."

  "Well, too bad," Luke shrugged. "You could've drawn some ers for sure."

  "I'm not a pirl, you know."

  They somehow into a lengthy argument over that point. Yuel had to think of something fast before this ive atmosphere drew away the few people who bothered to apply.

  "How about we just emphasize that part?" Yuel suggested. "We'll advertise that both genders are wele. Could you please do that, Luke?"

  "You wao yell stuff again?" Luke sighed but stood up anyway. "Alright, I'll be your marketing guy for today. But, remember: each freshman I bring in equals one day without yo nagging."

  "Right, right" Yuel nodded. I suggested this deal on a whim but it might bee an issue if I 't criticize Luke's memes for too long. Scrimmages will begin in two months, so I need him to be ready to py seriously by then. Well, I’ll figure something out. Hopefully.

  "CLASSMANCERS CLUB!” Luke shouted. “Boys and girls! Ladies alemen! Everybody, e py this awesome video game that's way better than Forknite!"

  Again, the shoutout attracted a crowd. However, this time, there were only five students and only two of them had suffit experieo be relevant. And, again, there wasn't a single girl among them.

  Luke shouted again and again in different variations but it was to no avail. Not a single girl ever showed any i in their stall.

  " I get a new flyer?" A boy asked. "I messed up my ID number." He passed a flyer back to Kai but she didn't accept it.

  "..................." She just stood there silently, like a robot whose power ran off.

  "Um, sorry?" The boy waved the flyer in front of Kai's fabsp;

  "ht," Kai took the flyer and handed him a new one. Despite her stoic expression, it was easy to see her mencholy. Meanwhile...

  "Alright!" Luke pumped a fist. "This makes it 30 people. So, that's 30 days of invincibility! Maybe I make it all the way to 300 and that'll cover the entire year!"

  Seriously? I swear, the lengths some people would go just to not ge their pystyle. Yuel shook his head.

  Still, Luke's motives aside, there was no denying he was helping them a lot. He drew people in while Yuel and Kai answered everybody's questions and hahe registration. All in all, they turned out to be a eam.

  As, despite their hard work, they couldn't find a single girl for the club. They eve as far as making Luke shout an advertisement that ecifically aimed at girls.

  "CLASSMANCERS CLUB! Boys and girls, everybody is wele! We even got one girl oeam!"

  Somehow, that only seemed to draw more boys than usual. However, still, zero girls.

  "Let's take a break," Kai said. She adopted Luke's teique and snatched a chair from one of the s. It robably bad to take chairs without permission like that but Yuel’s knees were g in pain. He couldn’t take this anymore so he became an aplid snatched a chair as well.

  Once everybody sat down, a wave of tiredness desded on Yuel. Everythi foggy. The skin-torg heat. The ceaseless noises of the busy crowds. His ag knees. And, above everything, of promising applications.

  Just let me rest like this for the rest of my life. Yuel leaned ba the chair and closed his eyes. Apparently, the others shared his ses. They didn’t even want to talk about their current progress.

  "Phew, my throat is dead," Luke gulped down his whole water bottle in one go. What a hard drinker.

  "Tch!" Kai clicked her tongue while typing furiously on her phone. Apparently, she just missed a note in a rhythm game. How did she even have the strength to do anything right now? Or, maybe she was just trying her hardest to distract herself from reality?

  Meanwhile, Yuel flipped through the forms they got so far. They got 12 applications, which wasn't that bad all things sidered. In order to save themselves time ter, he already sorted the flyers by pyer rank. The highest rank was Gold III while the worst was an Lv.20 pyer.

  The Gold division erfectly acceptable frade-schooler so it seemed promising. If there was anybody in Ptinum, that pyer would be talented for sure and Yuel would prioritize them above anybody. However, that was too much to expect from a grade-schooler. Yuel and Lars only got to Ptinum in grade school by grinding a lot together, along with Julia...

  So, there really won’t be any girls applying? Yuel should have felt relieved. No girls meant they’ll be able to pick the best pyers out of the bunch. However, his heart stung. Maybe this time, if a girl joins the club, he’ll be able to properly...

  “Ah!” Yuel jumped. There was something bizarre in the crowd. Long boodles, floating in mid-air!

  No, wait. That was just somebody’s hair. Long and messy bck hair, that nearly hid the entire face. Little bck eyes peered through the long bangs. They seemed to be staring at the club’s table.

  It was a girl! A pale and ghostly one, so much that she almost blended into the enviro, but she was defihere!

  The skinny hairball fidgeted bad forth as she eyed the table. Did she want to sign up? She definitely did, right!?

  “Hey!” Yuel called out in the girl’s dire and grabbed a flyer.

  “What’s wrong?” Kai asked.

  “There’s a girl there who seems ied.”

  “Really!?” Kai jumped. “Where!?”

  “There,” Yuel poioward the girl as he kept moving.

  “Huh? Where?”

  “There. You don’t see her?”

  “Hmmmmm,” Kai squinted her eyes. “I’m not sure who you’re referring to.”

  “That girl over there, with the bck hair.”

  “’t say I see anybody.”

  “Me her,” Luke even pulled up his sungsses. “You sure you ain’t imagining stuff?”

  “Huh?” Yuel was taken aback. What’s with these reas? The girl was clearly still there. “Over there, the girl with the long bck hair. The ohat looks a little pale.”

  “I don’t see anybody like that,” Luke shrugged. “Pale and long bck hair? My guy, are you sure that’s not a ghost?”

  “A-A ghost?” Kai jumped. “H-Huh, no way. They do. Is that supposed to be a prank?”

  “No, she’s really there,” Yuel insisted. How came they couldn’t see her? Sure, there was a big sea of people walking around and that pale girl was a little difficult to notice at first. However, once Yuel locked down on her, she stood out like a sore thumb with that long bck spaghetti hair.

  “Fine, I’ll just go to her,” Yuel set out with the flyer in hand. “Hey, do you want to apply for the club?”

  “E-Eh?” The girl’s eyes popped wide. It’s like she was shocked by the mere faebody could possibly address her.

  “A-Ah,” The girl gapped like a fish and slowly retreated deeper into the crowd.

  “Wait, I just-” Yuel broke into a run as the spaghetti hair girl vanished in the busy crowd.

  “S-Sorry!” Yuel bumped into somebody but he didn’t slow down. He swam through the sea of people to find that elusive girl. Where could she possibly go!? She was just there a moment ago! That bck hairball should stick out easily even with so many people around.

  Where? Where did she go!? She might be ied in joining! If she does, Yuel will have a ce to redeem himself for how he treated Julia. This time, he’ll properly keep in mind that the other person was a girl and will coach her accly without getting on her bad side...

  What am I even thinking? Yuel stopped. It was dumb. That girl wasn’t Julia. What happened between them couldn’t be repaired anymore. Even if he recruits a girl to the club and properly verts her into a petitive pyer, so what of it? Whom would that satisfy? Nobody but him.

  Maybe the others were right and Yuel halluated the whole thing. Or, maybe it was a ghost. That pale girl barley looked like a living person.

  “Heh, haha...” Yuel produced a dry ugh. He was thinking so hard about recruiting a girl it made him imagine a girl in the crowd. 10/10. Maybe the sun was to today and he was in the process of getting sunstroke. It was dumb. All of it.

  Whatever. Yuel sighed and shook his head. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder: did he really imagihat girl? Even with his selfish is clouding his mind, he was sure he saw a girl eying their table back there. Or, did he? He didn’t even know anymore.

  Well, I’ll just leave it here. Yuel found a nearby billboard and pihe flyer on it. Maybe that spaghetti hair girl will see it here.

  Heh. Yeah, right. Yuel shook his head and walked off. That girl probably didn’t eve. She was nothing more than a figment of his wishful thinking.

  Unbeknown to him and without anybody notig, the flyer he put on the billboard mysteriously disappeared a few seds ter...