The alarm clock rang, signaling the start of another day for Haenul. Right at this time every year, new students had the opportunity to choose whether they wanted to join a club or not. Among them was Haenul.

Haenul had a passion for art since childhood, but after a past incident, he completely gave it up. He tried to push aside the past and create a new chapter for his life. Haenul stood in front of the club announcement board, which listed the available clubs:

MUSIC CLUB

ART CLUB

SPORTS CLUB

TECHNOLOGY CLUB

STUDENT COUNCIL (STUDENT BODY)

PSYCHOLOGY CLUB

COOKING CLUB

GARDENING CLUB And many, many more!!

Wanting to explore and make more friends in this educational environment, Haenul chose to join the Art Club as his path to navigate through his school years.

After some searching, he found the club rooms. After walking for a while, he came across the Art Club, which was very crowded. As Haenul scanned the crowd, he spotted Heesung. Upon looking more closely, he noticed that Heesung was wearing a bracelet, which Haenul realized was the club membership bracelet. Haenul tried to push through the crowd to get closer to Heesung, but it was difficult to move through the people. Eventually, he managed to get close to Heesung.

"Heesung, are you a member here?" Haenul asked.

"Hey, Haenul-ah! Yep, I am! What do you need?" Heesung responded, grinning.

"I want to sign up, so how do I... do it?"

"YOU WANT TO JOIN?? COME FOLLOW ME!" Heesung enthusiastically said, dragging Haenul over to the registration papers.

"Fill in all your information here! I’ll approve it right away! Isn’t that great?" Heesung smiled. He whispered, "I’m the vice-president of the club, so don’t worry."

After saying that, Heesung waved at Haenul and went to greet other students.

Haenul filled in all his information and looked up to see Heesung still busy with other students. Haenul glanced around the club room and couldn’t help but exclaim, "Wow!" The large room was filled with stunning portrait paintings.

Haenul wished he could paint like that, but it seemed like just a part of his dream. After a while, Heesung walked back to Haenul.

"Are you done filling it out?"

Haenul handed the registration form to Heesung.

"NOW YOU’RE IN, WELCOME!! WE’LL HAVE A WELCOME PARTY FOR NEW MEMBERS, SO DON’T FORGET TO COME! IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, JUST ASK ME!!" Heesung excitedly said.

"Mm! Is everything good now?" Haenul asked.

"Yep, all set! Tomorrow I’ll bring you the bracelet, the uniform, and, even more importantly, the 5-page rulebook!" Heesung said casually.

"Uh-uh. Oh-oh," Haenul replied, surprised by the mention of a 5-page rulebook.

Haenul stood up, said goodbye to Heesung, and left the room, which was getting crowded with people. Haenul walked down the hallway, passing rooms full of students. As he walked past a clock, he felt an unusually strong sense of déjà vu. The clock wasn’t working. Haenul was surprised because he felt like he had seen it somewhere before. Suddenly, Haenul realized he had left something behind in the club room. As he walked past the rooms, he felt a chill. Everyone was silent, turning their heads to stare at him. Even in the Art Club, it was the same. Haenul spoke out.

"Heesung?"

Heesung stared at Haenul with a creepy smile and pointed behind him. Haenul turned around to see Seok standing behind him.

"Looks like you’re stuck here. Tough luck, huh?"

Haenul suddenly woke up. It turned out it was just a dream. He had fallen asleep after filling out the registration form and waiting for Heesung. Heesung then approached Haenul and asked him a question, just like in the dream. Haenul thought it was just a coincidence. But gradually, he began to realize that everything in the dream was identical to reality, except the clock was now working fine.

When Haenul got home, he was still confused about what had happened and couldn’t make sense of it. He slapped his own face to wake himself up. Was he still stuck in a dream within a dream?

Haenul took out the tarot deck he kept in the box. He drew a card, but unfortunately, another card got stuck with the one he drew, making it two cards.

THE GIFT and DEJA VU

END OF CHAPTER 3

"The Gift"
and
"DEJA VU"
The cards mentioned.