The rehearsal room was unusually quiet.
Not the tense, pre-performance kind of quiet. More like… the kind of quiet that comes right before someone does something monumentally stupid.
Kai, predictably, was the source of the chaos.
He stood at the center of the room holding a very large, very suspicious-looking costume: a glittery reindeer onesie.
"I'm not wearing that," Leo said flatly.
"But you're the male lead in Winter Sonata: Campus Edition: Holiday Remix," Kai insisted, beaming. "And this is the Christmas scene! Drama club voted for it."
"They voted?"
"Three people, one pizza, and two bribes. Totally democratic."
Yuki burst out laughing from the costume rack. "Come on, Leo. You'd look adorable."
Leo turned to her, betrayed. "You said we were doing a serious scene about heartbreak and snow."
She grinned. "We were. But then Rin rewrote it."
"I just added one line," Rin said from the lighting console. "It now ends with 'Merry Christmas, my deer.'"
Leo stared at her.
"…Was that a pun?"
Rin deadpanned, "You know what you signed up for."
---
Rehearsals became chaos incarnate after that.
The added holiday remix involved a snow cannon (built by the robotics club), a spontaneous musical number, and an off-script curry bread fight during a dress rehearsal.
Leo, tragically, took a direct hit to the chest. Sauce everywhere.
"Why is there curry inside your prop purse?!" he asked Yuki mid-wipe.
She smirked. "Always be prepared."
Rin tossed him a towel with a sigh. "You two are going to end up on stage bloopers compilations."
Kai, filming from the back: "Already uploading."
---
Despite—or perhaps because of—the absurdity, the cast grew closer.
Between rehearsals, they started sharing more.
Yuki confessed she used to have stage fright until she forced herself to audition in middle school.
Rin revealed she almost transferred schools last year, but changed her mind the night Leo helped her carry art supplies in the rain.
Kai admitted he joined the crew because he flunked the acting test… twice.
And Leo? He didn't say much.
But his quiet presence, his willingness to be ridiculous in a reindeer suit, and the way he listened made him the heart of the team.
---
The night before the performance, the group gathered on the rooftop again.
This time, no party. No lights.
Just four teens under a cloudy sky, drinking warm tea and watching their breath curl in the air.
"I'm nervous," Yuki said.
"You? Nervous?" Kai teased.
She nodded. "This… matters more than I thought."
Leo looked at her. "Why?"
She hugged her knees. "Because it's real. Because it's not just a play. It's us, in it. All the memories. The dumb snowball fight. The curry bread. That weird emotional scene where Rin cried and said it was allergies."
"I do have allergies," Rin muttered.
"You're allergic to sincerity," Kai added.
They laughed.
And in that moment, Leo realized something: they weren't just classmates anymore.
They were something more.
Not quite family.
Not just friends.
Something in between, stitched together with glitter glue, bad puns, and quiet moments like this.
---
The curtain was about to rise.
And none of them were the same people who'd walked into rehearsal that first day.
And that… was kind of beautiful.